Egypt will lose LE30 million from the fuel crisis because of the haphazard supply of gasoline and diesel fuel, said Hesham Saadallah, a senior supply ministry official.
The government imports petroleum products at a total cost of LE1.2 billion every month, he said, adding that budget allocations for diesel and gasoline purchases have been raised from LE120 billion to LE150 billion.
Saadallah called for securing trucks that transport fuel to curb black market sales.
Meanwhile, the shortage of petroleum products has reached 40 percent across Egypt, according to Imam Baraka, a member of the general division of petroleum products at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce.
The amount injected to the market in Fayoum totaled 550 tons, down 250 tons from its regular quota of 800 tons per day.
Ninety tons of 80-octane gasoline were allocated to the governorate, which normally receives 200 tons a day.
Imam said the crisis will continue into the first week of April, due to what he described as an “accumulated shortage” of fuel.
Meanwhile, Alaa al-Shebbiny, the head of the bakeries division at the chamber of commerce in Gharbiya, said work was suspended at 25 bakeries on Wednesday due to the diesel shortage.
He called on the government to expedite the handover of the governorate’s fuel quotas to cater to its needs and to protect the nutritional security of its residents.
He added that he prepared a report on the needs of bakeries that he will submit to the cabinet of ministers to find a solution for the shortage of diesel and its negative impact on the work of bakeries.
Mohamed Noaman, the deputy minister of supply in Daqahlia, meanwhile, said the crisis largely eased on Wednesday. He said Daqahlia received 1.7 million tons of diesel, which is its regular quota of the fuel.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
