The Egyptian government is planning to roll out an ambitious plan to replace subsidies with direct cash payments in an attempt to eliminate graft and give subsidies only to those who deserve them.
Two weeks ago, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the government “is moving in the direction of replacing subsidies with cash transfers in the coming period.” Economists say that the move — if implemented — would help fix a broken-down system for the delivery of subsidies, which has incurred huge losses for the government.