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Egypt to increase electricity prices in new fiscal year

February 22, 2018 at 12:51 pm

Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Energy, Mohamed Shaker [amcham_egypt/Twitter]

Egypt will increase electricity prices sold in domestic markets in the next fiscal year in five months’ time, according to Minister of Electricity and Energy, Mohamed Shaker.

In a statement, Shaker confirmed that electricity subsidies would be “zero” in the fiscal year 2020-2021 after the subsidy was supposed to be terminated in the 2018-2019 year. The fiscal year begins in Egypt early July and runs until the end of June the next year, according to the Egyptian Budget Law.

On 6 July 2017, Egypt raised domestic electricity prices by varying rates according to consumption figures ranging between 18 and 42.1 per cent for the current fiscal year 2017-2018. The draft of the Egyptian general budget includes the stop to electricity subsidies while providing protection to the target groups.

Read: Israel signs gas deal with Egypt worth $15bn

The draft general budget estimates electricity subsidies at $1.70 billion in the current fiscal year, compared to $1.53 billion in the last fiscal year. Shaker further added that the country is set to increase electricity production by 56.25 per cent by the end of 2018.

We aim to increase the production of electric power to 25,000 megawatts by the end of 2018, compared to 16,000 megawatts at the end of 2017.

Shaker explained that the electric power to be added to main network will come through the power plants currently being built in different parts of the country in addition to three power stations by German company, Siemens.

In early June 2015, Siemens signed a deal worth $7.4 billion with Egypt to set up gas and wind power plants during a visit by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. The three stations are being built in the administrative capital of Beni Suef and El-Burlus in Kafr El-Sheikh.

This week Egypt signed a gas deal with Israel with $15 billion in the hopes of spurring the country to be a dominant gas exporter in the region.