Staff report: The House of Deputies (parliament) Tuesday passed the state budget for the fiscal year 2018/2019, targeting a deficit of 8.4 per cent. Parliament's approval came during discussions on the special chapters on revenues and expenditures. The bill covers social allowance, grants, benefits, the purchase of non-financial assets, the acquisition of local and foreign securities, payment of local and foreign loan instalments, taxes and loans and other revenues including those of selling financial and non-financial assets. According to the new state budget, Egypt expects a budget deficit for the current fiscal year of around 9.8 per cent. The budget must be ratified by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi before taking effect. Also yesterday, the HoD approved by a two-thirds majority a draft law on the establishment of an authority for the development of Upper Egypt. The bill stipulates that the authority would be based in Cairo and would have other branches. The draft law provides that Prime Minister Sherif Ismail would identify the geographical areas of top priority for development. The bill also stipulates that priority should be given to projects that bring in revenues, provide high employment rates and attract investments to realise sustainable development. This is part of the state's plan to speed up economic, social and urban development for the southern Egyptian areas. The HoD also gave its final approval yesterday to a number of draft laws on the budgets of 49 state-run economic entities, the National Organisation for Military Production (NOMP) and the medium-term sustainable development plan in addition to the detailed budget of parliament for the fiscal year 2018-2019. During parliament's plenary sitting yesterday, Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal said that the State Council had earlier reviewed and sanctioned the bills. The parliament okayed during the sitting the country's 2018-2022 medium-term sustainable development plan and its first-year plan for the fiscal year 2018-2019. It approved a draft law presented by the government to amend some provisions of law No. 147 of 1984 to impose new fees for the development of the state's financial resources. The bill is part of the government's efforts to provide the public with high-quality services, the head of parliament's Budget and Planning Committee Hussein Essa said. Under the draft law, new fees will be imposed to improve services provided for citizens in several fields, including traffic control, arms licencing and passport and work permit issuance, Essa said. He said that five per cent of these fees will be allocated as personal compensation to the families of Egypt's martyrs.
