The Egyptian government will announce within days details of its austerity plan to target a LE20 billion spending cut, a cabinet source told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
With the new plan, the government seeks to diminish its budget deficit, which stands at LE134 billion.
The new plan will require all ministries and state entities, which have a budget of 490 billion, to cut their expenditures by 4 percent, according to the source. It also reduces spending at bodies unrelated to basic services and does not expand the health, education, and pensions sectors.
The same source added that the number of advisers at governmental agencies will be dropped. Ministers and governors have received stringent directives to reduce travel abroad, except if necessary, and not to purchase new vehicles, especially luxury models, according to the source.
Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri announced earlier that the government intends to save LE20 billion in a bid to reduce the budget deficit.
The Ministry of Finance requested all government bodies include plans for spending cuts in their proposed budgets in order to counter the state's budget deficit. It urged government institutions to share their views on how to solve the current economic crisis.
Finance Minister Momtaz al-Saeed is scheduled to meet next week with officials from his ministry’s sister agencies to review their austerity plans.
Total government expenditure in the 2011/2012 state budget approved in June was set at LE490.6 billion, LE263.5 billion of which was allocated to education and health.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) \ offered loans of nearly US$3 billion earlier this year, but Egypt has not make a final decision on whether to accept it.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
