CAIRO: Egypt's Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali said that there have been rising interest payments on public debt within the past 10 months ending in April by approximately 30.5 percent to a record 57.8 billion Egyptian pounds compared to 44.2 billion during the same period last year, an increase of 13.6 billion pounds. Ghali pointed out rising public expenditure on public investment increased by 9.8 percent to reach about 31.5 billion pounds compared to 28.7 billion pounds for the same period of the last fiscal year, an increase of approximately 2.8 billion pounds. Ghali said that the public revenues, which have yielded a value of 173.6 billion pounds, or 77.2 percent of the total target general budget for the current fiscal year by 14.5 percent of GDP and has a tax on incomes and profits and capital gains during the first 10 months of this fiscal year, “the proceeds of 51.4 billion pounds, or 87.6 percent of target revenues in the fiscal year 2009/2010 as the surplus payroll taxes amounted to 9.6 billion, up 1.4 billion pounds with a growth rate of 17 percent over the same period the previous fiscal year.” Taxes on goods and services, the ministry said also increased during the period from July to April of the current fiscal year as it rose by 2.3 billion pounds to 51.9 billion pounds, with growth of 4.7 percent, compared to the same period the previous year. International trade taxes received 10.8 billion pounds compared to 11.1 billion pounds in the same period last year, “due to the several tariff cuts, many which have been applied during the current year after it is released in early 2009 and the contribution of the Suez Canal in the revenues of the state budget during this period amounted to 18.6 billion pounds,” the ministry said. Ghali pointed out that the total expenditure on education and health care during the first ten months of this current fiscal year amounted to 45.3 billion pounds, or 17.6 percent of the total government budget. He added that spending on education amounted to 33.1 billion pounds, up 3.4 billion pounds in the same period of the last fiscal year, an increase of 11.5 percent, compared with 12.2 billion pounds to be spent on health, which has also increased by 1.8 billion pounds over the same period of last fiscal year. He explained that the total wages over the period from July 2009 to April 2010 amounted to 64.1 billion pounds compared to 55.7 billion pounds in the same period the previous fiscal year, up about 8.4 billion pounds, an increase of 14.9%. For his part, Mansour Mohammed Abdullah, head of the government accounts noted that the cash deficit of the public budget of the state during the period from July to April last about “reached 84.1 billion pounds, which represents 7 percent of GDP.” BM
