Cairo- Yesterday, Tuesday, the Egyptians were surprised by the publication of the text of a cabinet decision related to the new hygiene fees imposed on housing units and various industrial, educational and recreational facilities.
The decision stipulated setting the cleaning fees collected from housing units on monthly electricity bills, to range between two and 40 pounds, instead of an average of 4 pounds, and linking the value of cleaning fees to the electricity consumption segments, meaning the higher the citizens’ consumption of electricity, the higher the cleaning fees.
It also imposed a monthly cleaning fee of up to 100 pounds for independent commercial units, a thousand pounds for commercial centers and hotels, 5 thousand pounds for government facilities, public authorities, public sector companies, hospitals and private educational facilities, and up to 20 thousand pounds for industrial facilities and space lands used for commercial activities, while it is not imposed. Fees on places of worship, and micro-enterprises are exempted from half of them.
It reaches 40 pounds in homes.. the new cleaning fee on the electricity bill pic.twitter.com/kH3LvE1lYv
– Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) September 20, 2020
#veto| New cleaning fee pic.twitter.com/hLTcsl90OT
— Vetogate (@Vetogate) March 1, 2022
Where is the hygiene?
A number of Egyptian social media pioneers criticized the new fees, and saw that they add more burdens to citizens who are already groaning from economic pressures.
Some of them mocked the state of cleanliness in the country, pointing out that the real crisis is not in the cleaning fees, but in the absence of cleanliness, and some of them questioned the logic behind linking the cleaning fees to electricity consumption.
On the other hand, some saw criticism of the new fees as unfair, and that homeowners will not pay the maximum, but the amount decided will be according to the tranches.
It is worth noting that there is no declared outcome of the cleaning fees collected by the Egyptian authorities from citizens, but the local press had quoted in late 2020 the Minister of Electricity that the cleaning fees collected over a year from mid-2018 to mid-2019, amounted to 566 million pounds. .
By the way, the disaster is not in the hygiene fees, but where is the hygiene at its origin 😂🤣😅 pic.twitter.com/sJPTQxOdIE
— Hope (@Hope54727672) March 2, 2022
The government did not, and I did not find anything to collect money from the people, especially with the cheap electricity bills, so I decided to raise the cleaning fees
And we are in hygiene, we don’t have a mother, have mercy on me pic.twitter.com/wvtKiuAh2V– And say hello all the time (@Aelrosl) March 2, 2022
What are these numbers, guys, and most importantly, where are the cleanliness at all? pic.twitter.com/Z1Ci919WF7
– MR _تيـتو (@ TetoTm00) March 2, 2022
The news of the increase in cleaning fees, if true, remains a catastrophe of continuous disasters is forbidden to you, by God, we are no longer able to get food and drink for the children, is it forbidden?
– Abu Asim (@7pp6ZAUaXAwi9AA) March 1, 2022
The majority of Egyptians are on the 5th bracket in the electricity consumption, this bracket is in contrast to the increase that went down to 18 sq.p per kWh of consumption, and unlike the fixed 10 pounds of cleaning fees, “they said it will be canceled and I got a job.” They added to it new fixed fees of 11 pounds and increase with consumption. And the slice until it reaches 40 pounds..
— Dakar® ™ (@JaberDayi) June 9, 2020
misleading false speech
Cleaning fees for residential units will be imposed in brackets from 2 to 40 EGP according to the location, unit level, location and electricity consumption. Now, not all housing pays 5 EGP more and there is less, you liars.— Ahmed Zakaria (@Ahmedzak56) March 1, 2022
social dimension
Assistant Minister of Local Development and official spokesman for the ministry, Khaled Qassem, said that the government took into account the social dimension when defining hygiene fees in the law. He added, in statements to “Masrawy” website, on Tuesday, that cleaning fees were reduced, as they were standardized by 4 pounds, while in the new law, they start from 2 pounds.
The local development spokesman stressed that the gradual system was followed in the application of fees according to the monthly electricity consumption segments of citizens, in order to achieve the social dimension regarding the conditions of citizens.
He pointed out that the groups that consume less electricity will pay less cleaning fees than those that consume electricity in large amounts per month, pointing out that the maximum fees for residential apartments is 40 pounds per month.
Activists on the communication sites have been keen to clarify that many Egyptians already pay cleaning fees to private companies or garbage collectors, while the fees they have to pay to the government do not receive any services in this field.
The application of cleaning fees of up to 40 per apartment from tomorrow#enough_theft_benemot
I mean, I pay the scavenger 25, and I pay a tribute to the state 40. Beating the dead is forbidden by God— waheed mokhtar (@waamls) March 1, 2022
Oh man, it is forbidden for you to pay cleaning fees twice, once to a private company every month and once for the electricity connection, what do we call this?
– Wajdi Wajidi (@alrwybdh) March 2, 2022
Here, two questions come to me. The first question is, are the cleaning fees that were issued by a decision that the electricity company is not entitled to collect, the decision said about a year ago, were they removed from the electricity connection?
The second question, whatever the cost, who is the ministry responsible for the system, the collection of money and the implementation of hygiene? What is the secret of the link between hygiene and electricity?— Stayhome🇵🇸احمد (@Nightmareescap) March 2, 2022
New cleaning fee
I hope you will enter the carpets and clean under it?
— ├ Wait, Lotfy ┤ (@MahmoudOrton2) March 1, 2022
Source : Egyptian media + Social Media