On Tuesday, the Egyptian government denied raising electricity prices, after local newspapers reported what they described as the new prices.
The spokesman for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Muhammad Al-Homsani, said that no official statement was issued by the Ministry of Electricity regarding raising the prices of consumer segments.
He added in television statements that the government postponed increasing electricity prices three times, due to economic conditions.
He pointed out that if any increases in electricity prices are imposed during the coming period, they will be announced by the Ministry of Electricity.
He said: “If there is any room to alleviate the burden on citizens, the state will not delay in this matter.”
Local newspapers, including “Masrawy”, published a table of prices for residential electricity consumption segments, and said that it began to be implemented on Monday.
A table of new prices published by Egyptian newspapers
Mada Masr newspaper said that the Electricity Regulatory Authority published schedules of increases for the new year, which are in effect, according to the agency’s website, from January 1 to June 30.
Electricity in homes is cut off for about two hours a day, as part of the government’s plan to reduce loads due to a shortage of fuel.
The government spokesman said, “It was decided to change the load-reducing hours to daylight hours, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., by two hours for each region, due to the circumstances of the mid-year exams for students.”
At the beginning of the new year, the government raised the prices of car registration fees and metro tickets in Cairo, which is used by about 3 million people daily.
Telecom Egypt also announced that it will raise the prices of landline internet packages, effective January 5, by rates ranging between 29-33%.
Mobile phone operators announced that they would raise the prices of calls and internet data services, starting next February, according to what Mada Masr reported.
Egypt is facing one of the worst economic crises in its history, after the inflation rate reached a record level, driven by the decline in the value of the local currency and the shortage of foreign currency in light of the import of the bulk of food, in addition to the increasing volume of external debt.
Egypt raises metro ticket prices
The Egyptian government raised the prices of tickets for the metro, which millions use daily, on the first day of the new year, according to what official media reported.
Annual consumer price inflation in Egyptian cities reached 34.6 percent last November, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in Egypt.
A third of Egypt’s population, approximately 106 million people, lives below the poverty line.
#Egypt…an #official #clarification #increase #electricity #prices
2024-01-02 18:55:01
