CAIRO: Egypt is further cutting electricity subsidies, raising average prices by around a quarter, Electricity Minister Mohammed Shaker announced Tuesday, as it moves forward in a sweeping economic reform programme.

The subsidy cuts are the latest step in an electricity prices restructuring plan launched in 2014, with the new prices taking effect from July 1.

They were decided “taking into serious account the low-income (Egyptians)”, Shaker told reporters in Cairo.

The lowest consumers of electricity will have their subsidies cut the least, while the higher the consumption, the larger the cuts, Shaker said.

“Up to 1,000 kilowatt (per month), there is a subsidy,” while the subsidy would be abolished for higher usage.

Published in Business Recorder, 16th June, 2018

https://epaper.brecorder.com/2018/06/13/9-page/722308-news.html