The government is planning on raising prices of Cairo Metro tickets and will raise the price of some fuel products before the first tranche of the IMF loan is received, a government source tells Al Shorouk, suggesting a 6-8 week timeline for the cuts. The source added that diesel prices won’t rise (directly contradicting another report in the same newspaper last week). LPG and butane will rise in price, as will natural gas for industry, the source says. The news comes as the head of the House Transportation Committee said over the weekend he accepts in principle raising the price of metro tickets, Al Mal reports.

As grandstanding goes, this doesn’t even get a passing grade: MP Amin Masoud convinced some friend at Al Shoroukto give him some ink to advance the notion that a draft law that “is being drafted” (never trust the passive voice, folks) will ban anyone making EGP 10k a month from benefiting from subsidies — and would raise prices 10% for anyone earning more than EGP 15k monthly. Setting aside questions on implementation, Masoud plans to ask House Speaker Ali Abdel Aal to “request a census on national income levels” when the House returns from its upcoming recess. (CAPMAS performs its census once every 10 years, and is already scheduled to conduct a census this year.) Don’t take the story seriously, but as a harbinger of the debate to come. It’s going to get messy, folks.