Staff report As many as 6 million civil servants and 9 million pensioners stand to benefit from a government move to grant additional increments to state employees and raise the amount of pensions, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Monday. Putting into effect the two increments and the increase in pensions would cost the public treasury more than LE60 billion, PM Ismail said in a statement Monday. The planned increases would be applied concomitantly with the entry into effect of the new budget as of July 1, PM Ismail said. Prime Minister Ismail explained that the increases come in pursuance of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi directives reflecting the special attention he gives to improving the living conditions of citizens, the due consideration he pays to limited-income people and his keenness to expand the social protection network. The government move to grant two increments, one special and the other exceptional, to all state employees won final Parliamentary approval yesterday. parliament-passed law stipulates in its first article that all employees who are addressed by the Civil Service Law of the year 2016 shall have the right to receive the increase in regular increments and that increase shall not be less than LE65 per month. Public sector companies and public business firms are demanded under the new law to grant their employees increments and total entitlement increases the amount of which should not be less than those that the government grants to its employees. The raise in pensions, the prime minister said, would alone cost the public treasury some LE27 billion. A draft bill proposed by the government to raise the amount of monthly pensions gained final parliamentary endorsement yesterday. The parliament-passed law entails a 15 per cent increase in pensions as of July 1. Each one of the country's 9 million pensioners will benefit from this increase the value of which should not be less than LE150 per month. Also yesterday, the Speaker of the House of Deputies (parliament), Dr Ali Abdel Aal, said that the government of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail should not be held responsible for the accumulated debts that are included in the state budget for the new fiscal year 2018/2019. Dr Abdel Aal also emphasised that the recently-launched national projects had not been witnessed by Egypt since the construction of the High Dam. It is the present political regime that has revived the launching of giant projects, he added. Parliament Speaker Abdel Aal's statements came during a house plenary discussion of a report prepared by the Plan and Budget Committee on the draft medium-term sustainable development plan (2018/2019 – 2021/2022), the draft state budget, the draft budgets for public economic bodies and the draft budget for the National Authority for Military Production for the new fiscal year 2018/2019. The HoD decided yesterday to refer that report to the government in order to look into the recommendations and remarks that were highlighted by the members of parliament during the plenary debate. In another development, the HoD's Plan and Budget Committee gave approval yesterday to a draft bill introducing partial amendments to Income Tax Law no. 91 for 2005. Finance Minister Amr el-Garhi who attended the committee meeting said the proposed amendments serve citizens, especially the lower-income segments and the middle class. The amendments, he added, are part of the social protection package offered by the government under the 2018/2019 fiscal year budget, the minister added. Under the new amendments, tax exemptions have been increased from LE7,200 to LE8,000. Nearly 20 million citizens would benefit from tax exemptions. The amendments grant a 85-per cent tax discount to the second bracket with annual income from LE8,000 to LE30,000. Under the amendments, the third bracket with annual income from LE30,000 to LE45,000 was given a 45-per cent discount while the fourth bracket with annual income from LE45,000 to LE200,000 was granted a 7.5-per cent deduction. Lawmaker Mervet Alksan suggested introducing a sixth bracket for those earning more than 500,000 a year to make up for the tax exemptions the Tax Authority bears.
