Authorities at the Alexandria port managed to stop an attempt to smuggle 223 tonnes of subsidised gasoline to Turkey in paint canisters Al Ahram reported
It transpired that an Egyptian business owner had managed to collect the subsidised gasoline from gas stations, store it in paint canisters for the purpose of selling it at the international price over a significant spread.
Gasoline is heavily subsidised in Egypt, selling at around $0.33 cents per litre versus $2 per litre in Turkey.
At LE99 billion, energy subsidies (excluding electricity) take up more than 70 per cent of the LE138 billion allocated for subsidies - around 20 per cent of the total expenditure listed in the budget.