Egypt is reviewing long lists of beneficiaries in its food subsidy program, planning to cut those who do not qualify and fixing a broken-down system that has incurred huge losses for decades.

In press remarks April 5, Minister of Supply Ali al-Meselhi estimated that culling those who do not qualify will cut the ranks of food subsidy recipients by 10%. The government, which began the revision this month, gave subsidy card holders a two-month deadline to update their personal information at registration offices.

Meselhi said that determining who should be excluded will be done carefully, and that by July the process should solve “problems that ration card holders have faced in the past few years," including random exclusions and invalid suspension of some cards.

According to a recent report released by the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, subsidies were given to 71.6 million Egyptians in April 2016, compared with 69.1 million in April 2015. Egypt’s entire population totals 92 million, which means that almost 78% of the country’s population now receives subsidies. Critics say the overwhelming majority of subsidies go to people who do not qualify, meaning not only to middle-income citizens but also to the rich.