The Petroleum and Solidarity and Social Justice ministries are scheduled to begin reducing petroleum product subsidies in July.
The plan – devised by the Finance Ministry and included in the 2011/2012 state budget – includes distributing butane gas cylinders to citizens by means of special coupons while ending cylinder subsidies for commercial use, fueling brick factories and bakeries with natural gas instead of diesel, and increasing natural gas export prices.
Expanding the household natural gas supply network, reducing gas exports and redirecting the difference to fuel power stations that rely on diesel, and rationalizing petroleum sector expenditures are among the program’s other goals.
Petroleum subsidies account for LE95.5 billion of the state budget.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
