Late export subsidies could be disbursed sooner than we thought

EXCLUSIVE- Late export subsidies could be disbursed sooner than we thought: Finance Minister Mohamed Maait will meet with Trade and Industry Minister Amr Nassar early on in the new fiscal year (which starts next week) to devise a strategy for disbursing overdue payments from the Export Subsidy Fund — an issue Maait previously told us he is keen to resolve as soon as possible. A source at the Finance Ministry had previously told us that overdue payments currently stand at EGP 7 bn. We had heard before that the ministry was planning to disburse the late payments over an unspecified number of years. Industry export associations have been lobbying for the government to resume payments, particularly after the state raised earmarks for export subsidies to EGP 4 bn in FY2018-19 from EGP 2.6 bn this fiscal year, the source noted.