The Cabinet of Ministers approved a bill for a new law that will impose municipal fees on some goods and services. The products that will be affected include tickets for services such as cinema, theater, and railroad tickets and for telephone—and telegram—charges.
The reason for the aforementioned fees is to aggregate funding which will be channeled to the registry for societal and national associations. Basically, the revenue from the fees will be directed to support charity organizations in Egypt.
Consequently, this will lead to an increase in the prices of these products. Moreover, it may result in the increase of supplementary products: gas prices and the like. Eventually, an increase in the prices of goods and services will be imminent.
Rumors had spread during the middle of this week that there was a new announcement from the Cabinet. The public opinion already speculated that this would be a new increase in the prices—which turned out to be the case.
The bright side of this increase is that the proceeds from the additional fees will contribute to the development of associations working in charity and societal cases.
The not-so-bright-side is that this is yet another one of the—too many—prices increases imposed this year. With the steadfast increase of inflation rate, Egyptians may find themselves in the need of developing more stern budgets to cope with the changes.
If these fees are indeed for a noble cause, is this the right way to fund for societal efforts? Are these new fees imposed for the right reasons?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
