Your electricity bill for August just went up: The Electricity Ministry has finally put out its revised electricity price hikes for households, businesses, and the public sector. The new tariffs are broadly in line with what we expected based on leaks from within the government, and will see prices rise by 14-40% across the board, with the highest increases concentrated among higher consuming households.

You may already be paying the higher rates: Those in higher consumption households using prepaid meters may have already felt the pinch of higher prices, while others will see the new rates reflected on their bills in September.

The new price tags per kWh for households-

For a consumption less than or equal to 100 kWh/month:

  • The first 0-50 kWh/month will be charged EGP 0.68, up 17% from EGP 0.58.
  • The next 51-100 kWh/month at EGP 0.78, up 15% from EGP 0.68.

For a consumption higher than 100 kWh/month and less than or equal to 650 kWh/month:

  • The first 0-200 kWh/month at EGP 0.95, up 14% from EGP 0.83.
  • The next 201-350 kWh/month at EGP 1.55, up 24% from EGP 1.25.
  • The next 351-650 kWh/month at EGP 1.95, up 39% from EGP 1.40.

For a consumption higher than 650 kWh/month and less than or equal to 1k kWh/month:

  • The tariff will be EGP 2.10 from the first kWh, up 40% from EGP 1.50.

For a consumption higher than 1k kWh/month

  • The tariff will be EGP 2.23 from the first kWh, up 35.2% from EGP 1.65.

We’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop for a while: The government announced in May that electricity prices would be rising by an average of over 20% in July, after the last hike in January saw prices rise between 7-27% across all consumption categories. Those plans were put on ice in June, however, with an anonymous government official telling Enterprise that the government was putting off the planned hike until the electricity crisis that had resulted in daily blackouts for much of the first part of the summer was resolved.

The household hike structure is more progressive than the last go-around: As expected, this round of price hikes saw rates rise by a greater margin on the highest-paying tax brackets. This contrasts with January’s price hikes, which saw prices rise highest in the lowest kWh tier — by 20.8% — in contrast to the highest category, which saw a 13.8% hike.

Still, this price increase will disproportionately hurt low-consumption households, who continue to be the most impacted by the rising costs of subsidized goods as the government looks toward phasing out in-kind subsidies in exchange for an IMF-approved cash-based subsidy regime.

As promised, rates for industry went up as well: Rates for industry increased to between EGP 1.74 and EGP 2.34 per kWh across high, medium, and low consumption industries, up from between EGP 1.10 and EGP 1.50 per kWh/month listed previously as average prices..

Low-voltage uses for industries were not spared price hikes, contra expectations: Despite priorindications to the contrary, tariffs on low-voltage uses for industries also increased in the most recent round of price hikes. Low-voltage energy uses for non-irrigation uses will see rates rise to EGP 2.34 kWh, up 56% from EGP 1.50. This comes after a government source told Enterprise that the state aimed to exempt low-voltage industries from price hikes due to the deleterious effect they could have on small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Remember: The cost of electricity production has soared after float, becoming more of a burden on the state budget, especially after a dip in domestic natural gas production pushed the country from being a net exporter to a net importer of LNG in recent months.

Our energy subsidies are being watched closely by the IMF: Adjusting energy prices is part of the structural reforms mandated by the International Monetary Fund under our USD 8 bn loan program in a bid to “create space for more productive spending,” the Fund said in a statement announcing the completion of the third loan review in July. “Restoring energy prices to their cost recovery levels, including retail fuel prices by December 2025, is essential to supporting the smooth provision of energy to the population and reducing imbalances in the sector,” it said. The government is working on a plan to phase out electricity subsidies over the course of the next four years.

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