- EGYPTFJP News
- February 28, 2012
- 3 minutes read
Badr Al-Din: FJP Proposed Loan Alternatives, Ignored by Egyptian Government
Ashraf Badr Al-Din, Deputy of the Plan and Budget Committee of the People’s Assembly and a member of the Freedom and Justice Party National Committee, said that the current government was meant to achieve two goals, namely provide security and revive the economy. He added that it has not accomplished any of that so far. On the contrary, he went on, “we have all seen a state of total lawlessness, a total breakdown in security on the street, certainly much worse than it was before Ganzouri shouldered those responsibilities.
In a statement, Badr Al-Din said that the security issue cannot at all be separated from the issue of the economy, since foreign investors will not come, and tourism will not flourish, unless and until security and safety prevail.
The Plan and Budget Committee Deputy said that there is no transparency in the position of the Egyptian government regarding the proposed load from the World Bank: there are many unknown details, “we cannot make a decision without knowing the details”. He pointed that there are many alternatives that have been submitted to Ganzouri’s government, and even to the previous governments since the revolution.
Badr Al-Din asserted that these alternatives can provide a return even greater than the loan, including: amending the gas agreements, raising energy prices for energy-intensive factories, reviewing the subsidy system of which 80% benefits non-eligible well-off and wealthy cheats, and collecting tax arrears, in addition to very many other alternatives.
Badr Al-Din said that these alternatives have been on Ganzouri government’s desks for two months; had it started work on them, Egypt would have no need for IMF loans.