The Egyptian government has sharply increased electricity prices as it seeks to reduce its soaring energy subsidies bill. Announcing the new pricing this week, Electricity Minister Muhammad Shakir said that the price increases will help reduce the cost of government electricity subsidies to E£29bn this year, compared with E£48bn if electricity prices continued unchanged.
The highest price hike of 46.7% is for household consumption of up to 50 kilowatt-hours per month, with the lowest domestic increase of 13.1% being for additional consumption in the range of over 1,000 kWh/month. For commercial users, bills will rise by 9.4% for up to 100 kWh/month consumption, with increases for additional usage bands ranging from 11.6% to 19.0%. (CONTINUED - 624 WORDS)
