Egypt’s spending on petroleum subsidies fell by 23% in 2015/16 to EGP 55b ($6.27b) from a targeted EGP 61b, Head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC),Tarek al-Hadidi said, citing a decline in global oil prices as the main drive to absorb the cuts, Reuters informed. The government further intends to curb petroleum subsidy spending by 43% to reach EGP 35b, Ahram Online informed.
Egypt thus aims to reduce its deficit for the fiscal year 2016/2017, which started in July, to 9.8% of gross domestic product from the current 11.5%.
“There is also a saving of about EGP 8b – 10b that will come as a result of new reforms that the Petroleum Ministry will outline in agreement with us,” the Deputy Minister of Finance, Ahmed Kojak, told Reuters in April.
During 2014/2015, the north African nation paid EGP 71.5b in petroleum product subsidies as the Egyptian government has been trying to cut back state sponsored subsidies to address budget deficits.