By Ashraf Sadek: CAIRO, July 26, 2018 - The government has spent a total of LE150 billion to subsidise energy during the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017/2018, which ended on June 30, the minister of finance told a press conference in Cairo Thursday. Dr Mohamed Maeet said the government's subsidies for oil products had totalled LE121 billion, while the subsidies for the electricity sector had reached a total of LE29 billion in FY2017/2018. He also said that the government had paid LE80.5 billion to subsidise basic food supplies and a total sum of LE70 billion to support pension funds and the Takaful and Karama (Interdependence and Dignity) financial aid programme for needy families. During the FY2017/2018, state revenues amounted to LE791 billion, of which a sum of LE438 billion was used to pay the interest on debts. "About 55 per cent of the state revenues was used for paying the interest on loans and the non-tax related revenues of the state targetted LE230 billion but the total collected amount reached LE161 billion in FY2017/2018," he said. He said that the state budget deficit in FY2017/2018 was LE434 billion, a 9.8 per cent of the gross domestic product. The minister said that the FY2017/2018 state total budget had suffered from some negative effects such as an unexpected increase in expenditures on certain items at LE10.2 billion. The deputy finance minister for fiscal policies and institutional development, Ahmed Kojak, told the conference that tax revenues in FY2017/2018 had amounted to LE628 billion. Kojak said that the non-tax related revenues had reached LE161 billion. He added that the state had received LE1 billion as grants. For the first time in 15 years, the state budget registered a surplus of LE4 billion, about 1.1 per cent of the gross domestic product. Minister Maeet said that the total government expenditure in the previous fiscal year was LE1.2 trillion with an increase of 17 per cent on the year before. He attributed the 17 per cent increase to the widening scope of activities of government's social security programmes that included the payment of salaries, wages and pensions and the launching of more income-generating projects for needy families. Minister Maeet said that his ministry and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) had formed a joint commission, whose function was to coordinate the fiscal and monetary policies of the state. The aim of the commission, he continued, was to achieve a quantum leap in the Egyptian economy, which was regarded as one of world's 30 best economies, in terms of competitiveness. "The commission will support the Central Bank's efforts to promote financial inclusion in Egyptian society and to back a newly-introduced system for collecting state revenues, electronically," he added. In addition, Minister Maeet said, the panel members would work on limiting the use of cash by citizens and promoting e-payment methods. He said that the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the CBE and the banking apparatus, had introduced e-payment outlets through which citizens could pay for government services nationwide. "The mandatory e-payment system will be fully applicable as of January 1, 2019," Minister Maeet said.
