CAIRO: Recent amendments to the social insurance law could increase the rate of national growth by 8.5 percent, which are fueled by an expected 18-percent rise in national savings. In its session last Monday, the Shoura Council discussed 30 amendments to existing laws, which are set to be presented to the People's Assembly (PA). Head of Shoura Council Safwat El-Sherif hailed the new laws which he said are aimed at improving social equality in Egypt and supporting low income citizens. According to the current laws, citizens can choose how much of their salary they wish to pay insurance for, for which they pay 40 percent. According to the proposed amendments, however, a fixed rate of 23 percent of net salaries will be paid in insurance. Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Youssef Botrous Ghali agreed on Sunday to raise government pensions from 15 to 22 percent of the average basic annual salary at a meeting with the labor committee of the PA. Despite calls by some parliamentarians to push levels up to 25 percent, Ghali maintained that such raise will bump pensions of 3.5 million Egyptians as opposed to 2.7 million as of July 1, 2010. Ghali explained that the recent increase will ensure that citizens who receive pensions amounting to LE 586 or less will retain a raise while those who collect between LE 50-100 a month will experience a 350 percent increase, adding that proposed figures will not affect the public treasury. The pension laws are among four other laws Ghali proposed since becoming minister in 2004: customs law, income tax law, real estate tax law and added value laws, the fourth of which is due to enter the discussion table next year. Ghali said that the new laws are comprehensive and present a rooted change from previous ones in that they draw a close relation between pension rates and inflation. “We do not want to present a law like the previous ones, one that would die in the next 10 years,” he was quoted as saying in state news portal egynews.net, adding that the national pension fund only contributes to 28 percent of citizens' pensions while the rest comes from the public treasury. By 2012 new laws regulating social insurance in Egypt will be put into force, according to Ghali. After its inception in 1950, pension laws in Egypt have witnessed many changes. During Sunday's meeting, MP Ahmed Abou Hegzy reportedly told Ghali, “This is the only law that will send you to heaven.” Ghali is a controversial key policy maker, often accused of favoring modernizing the Egyptian economy without close attention to Egypt's poor majority. –Additional reporting by Magdy Samaan
