Surprisingly, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced the suspension of granting catering support cards to newly married couples, considering that the subsidy is the reason for the state’s decades-long delay in development. Al-Sisi’s statements, which came on the sidelines of the inauguration of a number of development and agricultural projects in Upper Egypt, shocked many who consider him the kind father who seeks to help and support young people, as he has shown himself to be responsible for all economic decisions that burdened citizens and broke the back of the middle class and increased numbers of the poor.
What did Sisi say and what is its meaning?
As usual recently, Sisi spoke, in the midst of a crowd of regime men, about the population increase and that it is the reason for “devouring the fruits of development” and the people’s failure to live a life of luxury and pleasure. Then suddenly he talked about ration cards, ordering him to stop issuing any cards to newly married couples. Al-Sisi said: “I said that I will never give another catering card to someone who is about to get married again, because if you are going to get married and you are expecting the state to give you a catering card, so you are not able to get married, you are not able to have responsibility, and this is a culture that was formed in people’s conscience, and it does not exist except in our country.”
Al-Sisi continued: “(the Culture) of buying things for less than its worth, and also when I leave someone to feed my family for me… This happens only in this country, and that’s why it couldn’t rise in the past years.” And he re-emphasized categorically: “This is what I am saying in order to spare Dr. Mustafa (Prime Minister) and Dr. Ali (Minister of Supply) speech. We will not put another catering card for more than two people in the past, and now there are no catering cards for any one.”
The leaders of the Ministry of Supply stressed that they were not aware of the president’s decisions in advance, and that they were surprised by them, so they did not have the ability to explain them or clarify what would result from them. The Director of the Ration Cards Department in the Ministry of Supply, Fawzi Afifi, said in press statements that the administration was surprised by the president’s statements, without any prior knowledge of these decisions. He added: “These statements turned the world around, and every journalist understood the speech differently and wrote a need for form,” explaining that the administration is awaiting the executive formula for this decision from the Council of Ministers. Meanwhile, the media spokesman for the Ministry of Supply, Hani Iraqi, denied knowing the date of the entry into force of the decision intended by the president.
Improvised decisions without feasibility study
Supply and bread subsidies amount about £89.5 billion in the current financial year 2021/2022, amounting to £53 billion for supply goods benefiting 64 million people, and £36.5 billion for bread subsidies benefiting some 72 million citizens. This support mainly benefits the poor and the simple classes, as according to official statistics, which were issued at the stage before the Corona pandemic crisis, about 30 million Egyptians live below the poverty line, while it is believed that the Corona pandemic led to the growth of the poor in numbers ranging between 5 and 12 million An individual. While the World Bank says that 60% of Egyptians are either poor or more needy.
The support, which Sisi aspires to end, represents only about 3.65 percent of the state’s general budget 2021/22, amounting to 2 trillion and 461 billion pounds, while the interests and installments of loans, with which Sisi drowned the Egyptians, represent about 47.7% of the state’s general budget, amounting to one trillion And 172 billion pounds! Al-Sisi’s decisions regarding supply subsidies represent an extension of previous random, improvised decisions, without being well aware of their danger to the lowest-income groups, and their danger to security and community peace, in which the supply subsidy is an important safety valve.
Al-Sisi, who has 13 brothers and sisters, and fathered 4 sons, all of whom appointed them to prominent positions in the state, confiscates the Egyptians’ right to marry and have children, which is one of the human rights, and demands that newlyweds not seek a ration card that contributes to reducing some expenses for their young families Then he comes to claim that he is the merciful father of the Egyptians! What father is this who refuses to support his children with crumbs of crumbs to form their families! Al-Sisi speaks with the utmost arrogance and empty wisdom claim that the support is the reason for the delay of the state for decades, and not the dictatorial regimes that sponsor corruption, theft, looting and ignorance of the people, and not the control of a certain group to which he belongs over the capabilities of this people and their control over their future!
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