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EGP 14 increase on ration cards per citizen in Ramadan Government supports 71 million citizens with 21 million cards worth EGP 21 per citizen, for a total of EGP 1bn
Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy announced on Tuesday the approval of the cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, allocating EGP 1bn to increase the subsidy on ration cards for one time during Ramadan to ease the burden on citizens. During a joint press conference with the ministers of finance and social solidarity, Minister of Supply Ali Meselhy said that an increase of EGP 14 will be allocated to each citizen on ration cards. This means that every citizen will be given a total subsidy of EGP 35 during Ramadan, up from EGP 21. The move comes as part of the government's efforts to reduce the inflationary impact of the economic reforms recently adopted by the Egyptian administration, which caused inflation to rise to 32.5% at the end of March—a record-high in 30 years. Meselhy said that subsidised goods will be disbursed after the increase, which would give each citizen 2kg of sugar, along with more of an allocation of oil and rice. The number of beneficiaries of ration cards amounts to 71 million citizens across 21 million ration cards, with an allocation of EGP 21 per citizen each month. The government has allocated EGP 64bn to subsidise goods in the budget of the fiscal year 2017/2018, down from EGP 49.5bn allocated for the current fiscal year. According to the financial statement of the new budget, which El-Garhy presented at the parliament on Monday, there are 76.8 million citizens that benefit from bread subsidies, worth EGP 37.1bn for 86.2 billion loaves.
