Some members of the Egyptian parliament want to cut the general budget deficit by using Islamic finance innovatively to raise funds.
Ahmed Khalid, head of the Salafist Nour Party parliamentary bloc, said June 26 that his party will present a draft bill to establish a national council to eliminate the public debt using Islamic finance.
Khalid criticized the current thinking behind budget preparation, noting that in addition to a deficit of 350 billion Egyptian pounds ($39.4 billion), the state owes debt service payments of roughly 250 billion pounds. Revenues account for 632 billion pounds, while expenditures now exceed 1 trillion pounds.
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