The Sudanese people have welcomed the new year with increased prices of electricity for the residential and industrial sectors, despite the government’s pledges to maintain the subsidies for electricity in the budget of 2021.
The budget, however, is expected to negatively impact the economic and social conditions.
The increases surpassed the 500 percent for the residential sector, and the price of kilowatt rose from 80 piasters to SGD6.35. As for the industrial sector, the price for one kilowatt rose to SGD10.
On the occasion of the country's Independence Day, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok pledged to find solutions to the economic crises, signaling major and strategic breakthroughs in the economic file after removing the country from the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
During ongoing talks regarding the budget, the parties of Sudan's ruling political coalition asserted that no increases will be imposed on the subsidized services and goods, which include fuels, electricity wheat, medicine, and cooking gas.
The transitional government in Sudan has been imposing strict economic measures, since August 2019, starting from decontrolling fuel prices which aggravated the living condition.
Economist Kamal Karrar commented on this, saying that the increase in electricity bills by such a huge amount represents an additional burden that citizens, especially those with low-income, are obliged to bear.
This will have repercussions on various industrial and productive sectors in the country, Karrar added.
