Egypten bruger syv gange så meget på subsidier til brændstof som på sundhedssystemet. Meningen var, at det skulle komme de fattige til gode men 80 procent af støtten går til de velhavende.
CAIRO, 31 March 2014 (IRIN): Fuel subsidies in Egypt account for 22 percent of the state’s annual budget, taking funds away from other sectors like health and education. The government believes an ambitious five-year scheme, starting with a fuel smartcard roll-out, will reduce and rationalize fuel consumption, circumvent widespread corruption and phase out fuel subsidies.
Estimates for fuel subsidies for this year amount to the equivalent of US$20.1 billion (milliarder, red.).
“We pay for fuel subsidies about seven times more than what we spend on health and three times more than on education,” said Haithem Trabeek, a senior strategic and business planning manager with E-Finance, a company owned by the Ministry of Finance and selected by the government to run a new smartcard system that is part of a plan to reform fuel subsidy payments. The cards are initially being used to monitor the distribution of subsidised fuel to help identify fraud and corruption – something that analysts say is a widespread problem in the subsidy scheme, which is meant to help the poorest in society.
Energy subsidies are currently applied to every Egyptian, regardless of their income. Because everyone gets cheap fuel, and the rich consume more of it, the poorest are effectively left out.
“I have a good salary and benefit from subsidies like someone who earns one dollar per day,” said Trabeek. “In fact, I’m subsidized more.”
Tarek H. Selim, professor of Business Economics and Strategy, says the generalized entitlement to open-ended energy subsidies makes the current system dysfunctional.
“Fuel subsidies should be tailored to the poor. However, it’s wealthy car owners who benefit much more from subsidies,” Selim told IRIN. According to Minister of Planning Ashraf El-Araby, 80 percent of the energy subsidies are spent on the rich.
Nevertheless, the fuel subsidies do keep costs down for the poor, especially in the food production and transport sectors, and the government is aware that any dramatic reductions risk provoking inflation and social unrest similar to Egypt’s 1977 “bread riots” when, under World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressure, the government tried unsuccessfully to reduce food subsidies. In recent years, the government has been pushing subsidy reforms in a bid to agree a loan with the IMF.
Phased cuts
Since the start of the year, the government has gradually been implementing the smartcard system as part of its plan to phase out energy subsidies within five years.
“The great benefit of our smartcard project is it will enable the government to tailor policies, to apply subsidies in a more targeted way,” Trabeek told IRIN.
“Rechannelling energy subsidies can have a real impact on people’s lives.”
Subsidized fuel is particularly important for the country’s one-in-four living in poverty. Fuel shortages over the past 12 months have hit farmers seeking to irrigate and harvest their crops, bakers making the country’s heavily subsidised bread, and even ambulances seeking to reach the sick.
New database
Læs hele artiklen: http://www.irinnews.org/report/99865/smartcard-plan-to-attack-egypt-s-fuel-crisis
