Egypt is rationalising food subsidies

There are six criteria that could lead to cardholders losing their right to subsidised food items based on consumption habits that could indicate they are not in need of subsidised items.

Families that send a child to an international school costing more than LE30,000 per year or own a car produced after 2014 will be eliminated from the system, according to the criteria. Individuals owning 10 feddans or more of agricultural land will also be removed.

If the monthly electricity consumption of a family is over 650 KW or if it has a mobile-phone bill of over LE800 per month, cardholders will no longer be eligible to stay enrolled.

However, Moselhi said that individuals who are excluded but that can prove their right to subsidised food can ask for their case to be looked at by one of the ministry’s offices.

Two years ago, the government started to update Egypt’s ration-card system in order to target it better towards alleviating the economic burdens on needy families and achieving social justice.