Egypt's petroleum ministry announced late on Thursday new raises in the fuel subsidized prices that will come into effect as of Friday.

In an official statement, the ministry sent a table that shows the fresh price hikes of octone, diesel, butane gas, natural gas and the low-quality fuel of mazut.

The price of 80-octane gasoline has gone by 30.5 percent from EGP 1.60 per liter to EGP 2.35.

The price for 92-octane gasoline changed from EGP 2.60 to 3.50, while the diesel price is now EGP 2.35 compared to 1.80, according to the statement.

In late 2012, the government liberalised the price of the highest quality gas, octane 95, which is currently sold at EGP 6.25 a litre.

The price of a small gas cylinder has gone up from EGP 12.5 to 15. However, the big cylinder will cost EGP 30 instead of 25.

The move comes as part of the government's plan to slash its total subsidy bill in the new budget by 14 percent to reach EGP 130.1 billion in the 2016/17 fiscal year compared to the current fiscal year to end in June.
 

The government plans to trim the petroleum subsidy bill by 43.5 percent to reach EGP 35 billion and the electricity subsidy bill by 6.4 percent to EGP 29 billion in 2016/17 due to the falling in the global oil prices.

Egypt embarked on a fiscal reform programme in July 2014 in an attempt to curb the growing state budget deficit -12.2 percent of the GDP- through cutting subsidies and introducing new taxes including the value added tax.

The reform programme is getting Egypt closer to the IMF board approval of a $12 billion loan package to be delivered over three years. 

Long queues of motorists lined up at several Cairo petrol stations, hoping to fill up their tanks before the new increases become effective.