The Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Mohamed Shaker, has announced that a slight increase in the prices of electricity will be witnessed during the first three segments of consumption and later on the prices will steadily increase as consumption gets higher.

He mentioned that the cabinet will approve the new tariff on electricity consumption within a few days, according to Daily News Egypt.

The fluctuations of the foreign currency exchange rate, the changing prices of the imported gas from abroad, and the high prices of equipment needed for energy consumption are some of the major factors that led to the gradual removal of electricity subsidies in order to keep up with development, added Menafn.

Noozz cited Shaker as saying that it is better to provide financial subsidies to citizens, instead of electricity subsidies, especially since the state subsidizes electricity by about EGP 39b. According to this year’s subsidy strategy, electricity subsidies should not exceed EGP 20b.