According to the Egyptian presidency, El-Sisi's directives came during his meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk on Saturday.
Launched in 2015, the Takaful and Karama welfare programme, which means “solidarity and dignity”, aims to improve the economic conditions of the more vulnerable social groups.
The programme was launched with an initial reach of 1.7 million families and a total disbursement of EGP 5 billion.
At present, the programme supports 4.7 million families, with cumulative allocations rising to EGP 41 billion.
Egypt currently operates 22 social-protection programmes with a total annual cost of EGP 635 billion.
The total public investments included in the draft state budget for FY2025/2026 are expected to increase by 12.7 percent compared to the revised estimates for FY2024/2025, bringing the total to EGP 435 billion, up from EGP 386 billion in the current fiscal year’s estimates.
During the meeting, El-Sisi directed achieving a primary surplus and enhancing financial discipline in government procedures to improve the performance of the economy and support development efforts.
He also emphasised the importance of forging effective partnerships between government agencies and the business community and adopting a balanced fiscal policy to drive growth and maintain financial stability, while prioritising reducing debt service rates and burdens.
Also during the meeting, President El-Sisi reviewed the preliminary indicators of the fiscal performance for the fiscal year 2024/2025.
According to the Egyptian presidency, the budget primary surplus amounted in FY2024/2025 to nearly EGP 629 billion (3.6 percent of GDP), an 80 percent increase compared to the fiscal year 2023/2024, which recorded a primary surplus of EGP 350 billion.
For his part, Kouchouk said an outstanding financial performance was achieved despite impactful external shocks.
The minister pointed to the sharp decline in the Suez Canal revenues by 60 percent below the target, resulting in losses estimated at approximately EGP 145 billion to the budget.
The meeting also addressed the main outcomes of the financial performance for the fiscal year 2024/2025.
Tax revenues for the fiscal year 2024/2025 amounted to EGP 2,204 billion, showing an increase of 35.3 percent compared to the previous fiscal year, he reported.
Kouchouk further reviewed the growth rate of primary expenditures and the general revenues for the budget.
The percentage of growing revenues reached 29 percent, and the percentage of growing primary expenditures reached 16.3 percent, he said.
The minister noted that the noticeable improvement in tax performance is the result of efforts to expand the tax base by attracting new financiers, resolving disputes amicably, utilising technological means and electronic systems, establishing an e-commerce unit, developing the tax system and applying a tax risk management system.
This initiative aims to enhance the Tax Authority's administrative capabilities and regulatory procedures through several key steps: updating VAT refund procedures, designing a new, fast, and easy system, and unifying, simplifying, revitalising, and improving tax services.
The performance also resulted from expanding tax concessions and restoring confidence in taxpayers by reducing burdens on them, simplifying procedures, enhancing transparency, reducing chances of evasion, increasing compliance, and improving collection accuracy.
He explained that the results of implementing the first phase of the tax concessions package from February to August 2025 included the submission of 401,929 applications to resolve old tax disputes.
This is in addition to the submission of more than 650,000 amended or new voluntary tax returns, resulting in the collection of EGP 77.90 billion.
According to the Egyptian presidency, the number of financiers who applied to benefit from tax incentives and concessions for projects with an annual turnover not exceeding EGP 20 million reached approximately 104,129.
Kouchouk also indicated that the state has allocated budgets to treat more than 80,000 critical cases at the state's expense.
The state also covered the subscriptions of those who could not afford them within the comprehensive health insurance system, amounting to approximately EGP 2.3 billion in several governorates.
In the field of education, the assistance of 160,000 teachers was required to fill the teacher shortage during the 2024/2025 academic year, at a cost of EGP 4 billion, the Egyptian presidency said.
A total of EGP 6.25 billion was also allocated during the 2024/2025 fiscal year for school nutrition programmes and the provision of meals for students to combat malnutrition.
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