The government is facing an additional crisis over coded electricity meters after receiving thousands of complaints through its electronic system from meter holders who say their ration cards were suspended and they were denied subsidies because they were wrongly classified as stealing from the electricity supply, a Cabinet source told Al Manassa.
The controversy stems from an earlier requirement by the Ministry of Electricity for people seeking coded meters for unauthorized buildings to file “electricity theft reports” as a routine step to regularize their status, according to the source, who asked not to be named. Citizens were promised the step would carry no legal consequences, but the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade later used the reports to remove about 13,000 people from the subsidy system, treating “electricity theft” as one of the criteria for excluding ration-card holders.
The move comes despite repeated denials by the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade, sources in the same ministry, and other sources at the Ministry of Electricity of any link between installing coded meters and removal from ration-card subsidies.
The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade previously confirmed it had removed the use of prepaid coded meters or the “estimated consumption” system as criteria for determining eligibility for ration-card subsidies, after problems emerged during implementation.
But after the prime minister issued strict directives in August 2024 to suspend subsidies for anyone named in an electricity theft report, coded-meter holders who had submitted paperwork to the Ministry of Electricity, including “routine” theft reports, were surprised to find their ration cards canceled.
The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade based its decision on those reports, treating them as proof of ineligibility under new government criteria that also included building violations on agricultural land, the source said.
This administrative conflict has now pushed the government to study a mechanism to distinguish between citizens for whom “procedural” reports were filed as a condition for installing meters and cases of actual electricity theft, the source said.
The source confirmed that coordination is underway between the electricity and supply ministries to review the cases of those excluded, especially after confirming that many had officially legalized their status.
In a related development, the source said the total number of electricity theft reports filed nationwide has exceeded 4 million, with financial losses estimated at about 30 billion Egyptian pounds ($570 million)
The source said the government has begun using modern technologies to detect theft in different governorates, while emphasizing firm action against actual violators and no leniency in confronting a phenomenon that drains state resources.
Separately, a source familiar with the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade’s ration-card database told Al Manassa the ministry is studying reinstating some citizens who were removed from the database over “electricity violations.” The source said the lists of people accused of electricity theft are sent by the Ministry of Electricity to the Ministry of State for Military Production, which manages the database and adds or deletes names.
The source, who asked not to be named, said government agencies are exchanging correspondence to find quick solutions for citizens wrongly removed from the subsidy system over electricity theft.
Code meters are allocated to citizens who receive electricity illegally, according to the unified electricity services platform. They have recently sparked a crisis, as they were previously billed under a tiered system based on consumption levels, but the government approved a new billing system that charges them a flat rate of 2.74 pounds ($0.05) per kilowatt-hour.
The decision drew broad opposition from coded-meter holders on social media. Lawmakers also submitted five briefing requests to halt implementation, describing it as an “ill-considered” decision that raises electricity costs for about 3.6 million meters.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly appeared more than a week ago to say there would be no retreat from the decision, stressing, “As long as the situation is illegal, I have the right to take the necessary measures.”
