Code meters, mounting bills, missing files: Egypt’s electricity standoff
Hassan Mohamed’s electricity bill jumped nearly 300% overnight, a surge that has left millions of Egyptians struggling with unexpected costs under a new flat-rate tariff.
Hassan, who lives in a modest apartment in Alexandria’s East District, typically consumes about 100 kilowatt-hours a month. Until April, his utility bills ranged between 80 and 90 Egyptian pounds ($1.50–$1.70). After the new system took effect, his monthly invoice soared to 315 pounds, despite no increase in usage.
The spike stems from the legal status of his building. Mohamed’s apartment is fitted with a “code meter,” a temporary device used in properties with unauthorized grid access. Egypt’s electricity authority says about 3.6 million such meters are active nationwide.
Previously, households with code meters paid the same progressive tiered tariff as compliant properties, where rates rise with consumption. But a ministerial directive introduced in April imposed a uniform flat rate of 2.74 pounds per kilowatt-hour, effectively quadrupling bills for low-volume consumers.
The policy has triggered rare pushback in parliament, where lawmakers are urging a moratorium. The Prime Minister has so far resisted calls to suspend the measure, insisting it is necessary to regulate unauthorized connections.
Critics argue the directive punishes low-income families who consume little electricity but live in non-compliant buildings. Lawmakers warn the sudden spike could fuel public anger and deepen economic hardship at a time when households are already struggling with inflation.
Five motions, one prime minister
Over the past days, members of the House of Representatives have filed five separate motions calling on the government to halt the new billing arrangement. The motions were put forward by MPs Amir El Gazzar, Hussein Gheita, Amr El Saeed Fahmy, Ahmed Belal, and Safinaz Talaat. Meanwhile, MP Sanaa El-Saeed directly criticized the structural inefficiencies within the building regularization process itself.
On Monday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly bluntly dismissed the parliamentary motions, signaling no intention to backtrack. Addressing the controversy, he was unequivocal: “As long as the situation is in violation, I have the right to take the necessary measures.”
Inside parliament, however, lawmakers say they are being stonewalled.
“The Ministry of Electricity is responding to citizens’ outrage with a strange silence,” Gheita told Al Manassa. He argued that by failing to provide a clear resolution mechanism, the government is leaving vulnerable citizens in a state of administrative limbo.
The accumulating motions are subjected to peculiar delays in parliament. “Despite the growing number of lawmakers who have put forward the same motion, the House has yet to set a date to discuss the requests submitted over the code-meter crisis,” El Gazzar added
The way El Gazzar sees it, the political issue has now become a moral one. “The crisis can no longer be postponed,” he said. “An equitable solution is urgent; people are pleading for help.”
Hitting rich and poor alike
The state frames the surcharge as a temporary punitive measure. It is a flat-rate penalty for using unsanctioned infrastructure until zoning violations are formally resolved, and officials argue it ensures cost recovery while owners navigate the regularization paperwork. Affected residents counter that they bear no direct responsibility for their buildings’ structural noncompliance and should simply not suffer the financial consequences.
What troubles lawmakers most is the policy’s indifference to a household’s ability to pay. “The implementation completely overlooks socioeconomic vulnerability,” El Gazzar told Al Manassa, noting that the flat rate hits anyone with a code meter regardless of their means. In his view, the state is punishing the wrong people: “Go after those actually stealing electricity,” he said, “rather than taking it out on the poor.”
These costs land on a public already strained by a series of price increases. Driven by long-term energy liberalization goals, the most recent round of hikes saw rates climb by 16% for top-tier residential consumers and 20% for commercial properties.
Sanaa El-Saeed told Al Manassa that the new rate has upended household budgets built on a tiered system, in some cases dating back to 2011. By moving residents from the entry-level tier to high-cost brackets, the government has executed a “quiet reclassification” with a staggering impact on the bottom line.
The disappearing files phenomenon
On paper, the exit strategy is simple: regularize the building through the state’s settlement process to unlock standard tariffs. In reality, the process is so plagued by delays that many owners are simply giving up.
Hassan and his neighbors in the five-story building have been trying since 2020. They submitted a request for settlement that year, but the process has repeatedly stalled.
He said he had received “Form 3,” proving that the relevant paperwork for reconciliation had been submitted, but “after the settlement law was amended, the district office requested a completely new file, even though it cost us about 20,000 pounds the first time.”
Hassan’s building houses ten families who have repeatedly paid fees and submitted technical surveys. When they followed up, they were told their paperwork had simply vanished. “The engineer told us the file just isn't there,” Hassan recalled. “He told us to start over.”
The government’s punitive measures, it appears, have produced the opposite of their intended effect. Faced with a missing file, mounting bills, and the prospect of going through the same process all over again, he and his neighbors have stopped trying.
“We’ve decided we are not going through the settlement process anymore,” he said. “If they want to demolish the building, let them come. It can fall on our heads and our children’s, and we’ll be done with it.”
The cost of settlement, even when the file survives, is itself a major barrier. Saeed Ibrahim, who represents several residential properties in Imbaba district, said the cost of some cases has run to more than 300,000 pounds.
“It’s very difficult for a building owner to pay such amounts right now, especially with price hikes across the board,” Ibrahim told Al Manassa.
The ministry’s quiet rethink
Even as the prime minister was publicly holding the line on the flat rate, the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities seemed to be preparing to move on a different front. According to a ministry source who spoke to Al Manassa on condition of anonymity, the government is preparing to ease the settlement procedures that have stalled cases like Hassan’s.
The plan, the source said, is to reduce the complications associated with land surveys and technical requirements. Citizens would also be granted more time to complete paperwork and pay fees, drawing owners of non-compliant properties into the official system rather than excluding them.
A second proposed measure aims to bridge the bureaucratic divide by linking settlement files directly to utility accounts. Under this plan, legalizing a property would automatically guarantee stable access to water, gas, and power: effectively retiring the code-meter system and moving residents from a temporary fix to a permanent solution.
The same source noted the need for financial and procedural incentives for those willing to regularize existing properties. In return, new violations would meet a sharper response, such as large fines and penalties that could extend to imprisonment.
The source had previously told Al Manassa that the number of non-compliant units stands at around 4 million properties, concentrated in rural areas at roughly twice the rate of urban areas. The violations themselves range across categories: extra floors built without permits, residential units converted to commercial use, construction on agricultural land, and buildings that depart from the plans approved in the originally approved construction permit.
The first version of the settlement law was enacted in 2019, nearly four years after drafting began on legislation that would affect the assets of broad segments of Egyptian property owners. It was then amended in 2020. In the face of implementation obstacles and the confusion of local authorities in enforcing its provisions, lawmakers have spent the following years calling for further amendments to remove the administrative bottlenecks that block settlements.
Now what?
Between the PM’s insistence on the state’s right to collect dues from non-compliant properties and citizens’ appeals over soaring bills, some 3.6 million households remain caught in a policy dispute. The housing ministry has promised administrative facilitations to ease settlement procedures, though officials acknowledge these measures will not resolve past cases where records have already been lost.
For now, the questions are practical: will the new steps be enough to draw households like Hassan Mohamed’s back into compliance, or has the gap between rising costs and bureaucratic remedies grown so wide that some families may choose to forgo services altogether?