Sisi Directs Govt to Defend Pensioners’ Rights

By Nawal Sayed

CAIRO, March 22 (SEE) - President Abdel Fattah El Sisi directed the government to withdraw its appeal against the High Administrative Court ruling issued in Feb. concerning the right of pensioners to receive annual increases to their pensions.

On Thursday, Sisi met with Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, as well as ministers of Social Solidarity; Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform; and Finance and tackled the state’s budget for fiscal year 2019-2020.

During the meeting, Sisi said that pensioners have the right to get special allowances.

On Feb. 21, 2019, Egypt's High Administrative Court ruled that post-2006 pensioners have the right to receive annual increases from the government, putting an end to a lawsuit that started in March 2018 against the government by the Pensioners Union, which was headed by long-time workers and pensioners activist El-Badry Farghaly.

Sisi noted that despite the difficult path of the economic reform, it was yet inevitable in order to reach a better standard of living for the citizens, according to statement issued by the Presidential Spokesporson Bassam Rady

Rady added that the president saluted and expressed appreciation for the Egyptian people for their endurance of the hardships of reforms with courage and patience.

Also, Sisi directed the government to take necessary measures to reform the wage system, so the concerned committee would complete its work within one month from now.

The president also directed the ministry of finance to refund the total indebtedness owed to the pension funds by the Ministry of Finance and the National Investment Bank through preparing special legislation regulating these procedures and implementing settlement starting from the new fiscal year 2019-2020.

On his part, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait noted that the budget targets a growth rate increase to 6 percent, creating between 800-900 thousand jobs by supporting the industrial and export sectors and reducing the overall budget deficit from 8.3% to 7.2% of GDP, while achieving initial surplus of 2% of GDP.

On the other hand, Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Administrative Reform Hala El-Saeed outlined the main features of the sustainable development plan for 2019-2020, which focuses on “Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030” that includes increasing investments in education and health, in addition to the areas of housing, transport, and local development.