Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Aly Meselhy said that the state aims to stand by the most vulnerable segments of society. He added that his ministry is coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to consider increasing allocations for subsidies in Ramadan. He noted that there is no decision for the increase yet. “Any talks about increasing allocations without being included in the budget are nothing but empty words,” he explained.

During his participation in the Food Africa Exhibition on Saturday, Meselhy said that both ministries are studying the value of the increase.

Regarding the Butane LPG coupons, Meselhy said the responsibility was moved from his ministry to the Ministry of Petroleum, noting that the latter can benefit from the previous efforts, where the coupons were printed bearing the real value of containers.

As for filtering the subsidy lists, he said that the Ministry of Supply received 41,000 letters via the website as of Thursday 20 April. He added that 34,000 cards have been updated already.

He added that there is a daily report prepared by the ministry and received by the Ministry of Military Production in order to update the information. He added that the process will be completed by the end of June.

In a separate context, Meselhy said he expects to buy 4 million tonnes of wheat this season at EGP 14-16bn, noting that the subsidy for wheat in the current year is zero, as the grain is bought from farmers at the global price.

He pointed out that the ministry received 3,500 tonnes of local wheat since the season began, from the New Valley, Aswan, Qena, and Sharqiya governorates.

He explained that there was no difference in the global prices and the price on the local market, unlike last year, in which the gap reached EGP 4bn. He expected this to stop mixing local wheat with imported grains by 99.9%.

Finally, he said that the ministry is cooperating with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to consider imposing exporting fees of 100% on fish.