Sisi raises civil servants’ minimum salaries

The new raise has to be included in the budget for the fiscal year 2022/2023, the president said.

During a meeting with a host of government officials, including Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli, Finance Minister Mohamed Maeet, Deputy Finance Minister for Financial Policies Ahmed Kojok, and Deputy Finance Minister for the Public Treasury Ehab Abu Eish, the president also instructed the government to approve LE8 billion ($516 million) in two bonuses for the civil servants.

The first bonus will be a regular one and it would be given to civil servants subject to the Civil Service Law, Presidency Spokesman Ambassador Bassam Radi said.

This bonus will amount to 7 per cent of the basic salaries of this category of civil servants, he added.

He noted that the second bonus would be an exceptional one and it would be given to civil servants not subject to the same law.

This bonus will amount to 13 per cent of the basic salaries of civil servants within this category, the spokesman said.

The president instructed the government, meanwhile, to provide all civil servants with LE18 billion ($1.2 billion) in additional incentives.

Moreover, President Sisi ordered the government to hire 30,000 teachers every year, for the next five years, with permanent work contracts.

This addition to the school teaching staff nationwide would aim to meet the development needs of the national educational sector, Ambassador Radi said.

He added that the president also gave directives to the government to specify funds to hone the skills of schoolteachers.

The presidency spokesman noted that President Sisi also ordered the allocation of LE1.5 billion (about $96 million) in quality assurance incentives for the teaching staff of the nation’s universities, higher education institutes and research centres.

The president also ordered part of the same amount of money to be channeled to the implementation of the new law on the salaries of full-time professors, Ambassador Radi said.

Finance Ministry officials briefed the president during on Tuesday’s meeting about the implementation of the new tax system.

The president directed the Ministry of Finance to move ahead with the automation of tax procedures and complete the electronic invoice system before the end of the current fiscal year, the spokesman said.

He added that President Sisi also listened to an explanation during the meeting about the strategy to develop the nation’s customs system.

The president asked Finance Ministry officials to take international standards into account as far as the quality of imports is concerned.

The president also ordered the government to start enforcing the new pre-registration system for the imports.

Minister Maeet said the government has plans to reduce the total budget deficit to 6.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the new fiscal year.

We also plan, the minister added during the meeting, to achieve a primary surplus of 1.5 per cent of the GDP and reduce the proportion of debts to the GDP.