Mubarak to hold a meeting with Prime Minister for discussing new budget

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will hold a meeting tomorrow attended by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and a number of ministers for discussing new budget guidelines.

To this effect, the Prime Minister met yesterday with Finance Minister Medhat Hassanain, Minister of Supply Hassan Khidr for discussing 10 guidelines of the budget that include rationalization of spending, deepening social dimension, protecting limited-income brackets, increasing appropriations of wages and incentives, creating job opportunities, limiting unemployment, easing down taxation burdens on the limited-income brackets, mobilizing domestic savings for financing development, benefiting from commodity stocks, reforming pension system, and improving the status of the state civil servants.

The volume of the budget which will be raised before the People's Assembly and the Shura Council next month amounts to LE 140 billion.

This is the biggest budget in Egypt's history of which LE 56 billion will be assigned for the social dimension, an increase of LE 4.5 billion than last year and LE 35 billion for wages, up with LE 3 billion more than last year.

Meantime, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid today holds an expanded ministerial meeting for discussing the status of real estate wealth in all governorates in the light of the assessment made by Minister of Local Development Moustafa Abdel Kader for taking a number of measures aimed at securing maintenance for real estates.