Fuel subsidies in Egypt account for 22 percent of the state’s annual budget, taking funds away from other sectors like health and education. The government believes an ambitious five-year scheme, starting with a fuel smartcard roll-out, will reduce and rationalize fuel consumption, circumvent widespread corruption and phase out fuel subsidies. Estimates for fuel subsidies for this year amount to the equivalent of US$20.1 billion. “We pay for fuel subsidies about seven times more than what we spend on health and three times more than on education,” said Haithem Trabeek, a senior strategic and business planning manager with E-Finance, a company owned by the Ministry of Finance and selected by the government to run a new smartcard system that is part of a plan to reform fuel subsidy payments. The cards are initially being used to monitor the distribution of subsidised fuel to help identify fraud and corruption […]