Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply Eng. Yarub al-Qudah stressed that lifting subsidies on bread and the delivery of monetary support will begin early next month after finalizing the new mechanism.

Al Qudah said in a statement to Al-Rai newspaper that the ministry is currently studying the mechanism of pricing and setting caps for bread prices according to the cost of production, noting that the ministry is considering setting a price for bread every three months.

Al Qudah added that the ministry will continue its role importing wheat and to ensure the existence of sufficient stocks that covers the Kingdom's needs for a safe period of time in addition to its supervisory role on the bakeries to monitor adherence to the monthly price and ensure the quality of the product that is provided to citizens.

Al Qudah pointed out that every citizen whose income is less than 1500 dinars will receive bread subsidy in proportion to the number of family members within the frame of the social security program, which allocated171 million dinars for both bread and taxes on goods.

Al Qudah added that the adoption of delivering subsidies mechanism will significantly reduce the heavy waste of flour, in addition, it will ensure that only Jordanians will benefit from subsidies, unlike the current mechanism, which provides it for all nationalities.

The House of Representatives has approved the draft bills of the General Budget for the fiscal year 2018, and the budget of government units for the same year, at the conclusion of its two sessions held on Sunday.

The government subsidizes bread by 200 million dinars to ensure the price of bread continues at 16 piasters per kilo to protect the poor and the middle class, where wheat is imported through monthly tenders and stored in silos.

According to studies, per capita consumption of bread is estimated at 90 kg per year, which means that the government subsidizes 16 piasters, while the cost of producing one kilo of bread is around 32 piasters, which varies monthly according to wheat prices and costs.

The number of bakeries operating throughout the Kingdom is 1700 bakery, and the average annual consumption of wheat is about 960 thousand tons, equivalent to 80 thousand tons per month.