The Secretary of the Planning and Budget Committee and the head of the Justice Party, Abdul Moneim Imam, has submitted a parliamentary inquiry to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, and the Minister of Finance, regarding the outstanding debts owed to the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy by the government.
In his inquiry, Imam referred to several statements made by the former Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, between 2018-2022, stating that the government’s administrative apparatus owed the Ministry of Electricity LE27 billion.
The Prime Minister had ordered that this crisis be resolved in a manner fair to all government parties, he noted.
Imam also noted that on April 1, Representative Talaat al-Sweidy, the head of the Energy and Environment Committee in the House of Representatives, stated that because of the non-payment of dues to the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, the financial situation of these electricity companies is at serious risk.
It threatens to impact the maintenance of their stations, the future of their employees, and future expansion plans, he warned, adding that these companies may not be able to withstand the decline in the collection rates of electricity fees due to the reluctance of consumers to pay bills, especially the debts of government agencies to electricity companies.
Imam continued, “On July 2, the Chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company, Jabbar Desouki, announced that the company had obtained a loan of LE51 billion to pay part of the dues to the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, despite the company’s cash deficit.”
“The government raised the price of electricity in August by 30 to 35 percent. The Prime Minister stated that the reason for the new increase is to cover the gap in the fuel bill that the government bears to operate power plants, explaining that estimates indicated that the expected savings for the general budget as a result of this increase would be about LE15 billion.”
According to Imam, while the Ministry of Electricity is owed LE27 billion in arrears by the government, the ministry has borrowed LE51 billion from banks with interest estimated at LE15 billion annually, paid from taxpayers’ money, in addition to imposing a burden of LE15 billion on citizens through increases in electricity prices.
He asked: “What is the amount of the debt owed to the Ministry of Electricity by the government and its details? Why does the Ministry of Electricity borrow from banks while it has outstanding debts? Why does the Egyptian citizen bear the burden of these measures twice; once through increased electricity prices and another through the waste of taxpayers’ money on costly bank loans while the Ministry of Electricity has outstanding debts to the government?”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
