The Egyptian cabinet has extended on Thursday the deadine for reconciliation over building violations until the end of March.

The announcement comes hours before the expiration of the deadline set for 31 December.

This is the fourth time the government has extended the deadline for reconciliation since the process started earlier this year.

Applicants wishing to settle building code violations can pay a “seriousness fee” of 30 percent of the total reconciliation value if the payment is made in January.

They can pay 35 percent and 40 percent of the fees in February and March, respectively, instead of the 25 percent fee imposed in the past months.

Egypt received around 2.6 million reconciliation requests, with the state collecting approximately EGP 16 billion in reconciliation fees until Thursday, a report by the local development ministry showed.

The country has introduced facilities to encourage citizens to reconcile over building violations, including reducing reconciliation fees nationwide.

Egypt has stressed in the past months its adoption of “resolute” measures to stop building violations on agricultural land nationwide.

The country has seen a significant rise in illegal construction since the security vacuum that followed the 2011 uprising, with many people constructing multi-storey buildings without acquiring the necessary permits or complying with engineering safety standards.

Egypt lost up to 400,000 feddans between 1980 and 2011, and an additional 90,000 feddans in the past nine years, to building violations and land encroachments.

Unplanned buildings constitute about 50 percent of the urban clusters in villages and cities countrywide, according to officials.

In January, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ratified a law allowing settlement with the state over building violations, except for those pertaining to safety standards, authorised height or purpose, historic buildings, and others.

The Egyptian president slammed building violations on agricultural land in a heated speech in the summer, and warned that he would deploy the army if the problem persisted.