Egypt Earmarks $8 bln for Fuel Subsidies

Egypt's draft 2015/2016 budget earmarks 61 billion Egyptian pounds ($8 billion) for fuel product subsidies, Tarek El Molla, chairman of state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC), said in a statement on Saturday.

The cabinet on Thursday approved a draft budget for the next fiscal year that starts on July 1, but it hadn't announced the amount allocated for fuel products subsidies.

The petrol and natural gas products subsidy bill for the current fiscal year that ends June 30 is expected to be 70 billion Egyptian pounds, compared with a projected 100 billion pounds, El Molla added.

($1 = 7.6250 Egyptian pounds) 

(Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Mark Potter)