Egypt's government will meet with the International Monetary Fund in Cairo on Tuesday to resume talks over a long-awaited $4.8 billion loan, Al-Ahram newspaper reports.
Finance minister Momtaz El-Said also said that some features of the country's economic reform programme -- demanded by the IMF to qualify for the loan -- will come into effect during the current 2012/13 fiscal year.
El-Said went on to confirm that the programme will be completed in the coming 2013/14 fiscal year.
The Ministry of Finance also on Sunday said that it has prepared a draft budget for the coming fiscal year 2013/14 which includes serious steps to rationalise the country’s public spending.
The minister's statements came after his comments to Ahram Online last week that the government is in the "final phase" of drafting the reform programme.
"Several new taxes will be applied, including a value-added tax and additional taxes on cigarettes and mobile-phone calls," El-Said explained to Ahram Online at the time.
