Excerpts: Price increase Egypt drinking water November 08, 2012

+++SOURCE: Aswat Masriya via Egypt Daily News 8 Nov.’12:”Govt. to raise
price of drinking water”

SUBJECT: Price increase Egypt drinking water -government sells a cubic meter
of water for half a pound while it actually costs two pounds

QUOTE: “government is considering raising the prices of drinking water. .
.to reach the cost of production at least.”

FULL TEXT:An official from the Ministry of Utilities says that the
government is considering raising the prices of drinking water for homes and
industrial and commercial establishments to reach the cost of production at
least.

The government plans to dispense the support it provides for water prices.
It had reached 5 billion pounds annually, reported a local newspaper.

"The increase will be gradual over the upcoming five years" says the
chairman of the Consumer Protection Agency.

The government seeks monopolizing the purification and distribution services
through piped drinking water in Egypt. In order to reduce the budget
deficit, which exceeded 170 billion Egyptian pounds in the last fiscal year.

The Holding Company for Drinking Water which is owned by the government
sells a cubic meter of water for half a pound while it actually costs two
pounds.

"homes consume less than ten cubic meters of water monthly, the increase
would be gradual for homes and top consumer facilities", the governmental
official concluded.
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA