Egypt Daily News – The Egyptian government is implementing a new social protection package to support low-income groups during Ramadan.
The package includes a cash aid of 300 Egyptian pounds ($5.93) as additional support for around 5.2 million families benefiting from the “Takaful and Karama” program, costing 1.5 billion pounds ($29.6 million). It also includes subsidies on food ration cards for approximately 10 million families at a cost of 4 billion pounds ($79 million) and medical treatment for more than 60,000 cases at the state’s expense, costing 3 billion pounds ($59.2 million), according to official data.
According to statements from the Minister of Finance, the new package targets those most in need while ensuring that it does not impact prices or inflation, which has been visibly declining in recent months.
Additional measures will be implemented starting in July with the beginning of the new fiscal year 2025/2026. These include a 25% increase in monthly cash support for “Takaful and Karama” beneficiaries from April 2025 to June 2026, costing 13 billion pounds ($256.8 million). There will also be salary and pension increases for state employees starting July 1, at a cost of 170 billion pounds ($3.4 billion), along with raising the minimum wage to 7,000 pounds ($138.26).
This is the seventh social protection package approved by the government in the past five years to address rising costs and ease the burden on citizens. The total cost of these packages has exceeded 570 billion Egyptian pounds ($11.3 billion).
The first package, worth 100 billion pounds ($1.98 billion), was introduced in 2020 to support sectors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two years later, a 78 billion-pound ($1.5 billion) package was approved to address challenges arising from the war in Ukraine and global economic shifts. In the same year, another package worth 67.5 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) was introduced for similar purposes.
In April 2023, the government announced a fourth package worth 150 billion pounds ($2.96 billion) to support different social groups amid rising prices and living costs. Six months later, a fifth package of 60 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) was approved.
According to Fakhry El-Fekki, head of the Budget and Planning Committee in Parliament, the new social protection package differs from previous ones in two key aspects: first, it focuses on supporting low-income groups benefiting from the “Takaful and Karama” programs by increasing their financial aid; second, it includes a variety of programs such as financial assistance, wage and pension increases, and covering the cost of medical treatment for over 60,000 cases at the state’s expense.
The latest social package, approved in March 2024, raised the income tax exemption threshold for all workers in the public and private sectors by 33%, bringing it to 60,000 pounds ($1,185.05).
El-Fekki said that the new package does not include further increases in tax exemptions or early wage and pension hikes before July, the start of the new fiscal year. However, it continues raising the minimum wage for public sector employees to 7,000 pounds ($138.26) per month from July and includes salary increases for government workers and pensioners.
Egypt also raised the minimum wage for private sector employees starting in January 2025 to 7,000 pounds ($138.26). Around 14 million private-sector employees will benefit from this decision, according to the Minister of Planning.
El-Fekki estimated that the new social protection package would cost approximately 240 billion pounds ($4.7 billion), with 35 billion pounds ($691.3 million) allocated to low-income groups from April to June in the current fiscal year. The remaining 200 billion pounds ($3.95 billion) will go toward wage and pension increases and implementing the new minimum wage.
This includes 85 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) for wage increases benefiting more than 4.5 million government employees and 13 million pensioners to improve incomes. Additionally, 30 billion pounds ($592.5 million) will be allocated monthly to the National Organization for Social Insurance as part of efforts to settle accumulated dues to pension funds.
