Egyptians awoke Tuesday to steep fuel and cheap cigarettes price hikes aimed at funding new raises for government workers, prompting fears that people already weighed down by skyrocketing food prices will be struggling to buy basic goods. People raced to gas stations to fill up Tuesday morning, only to find the average price of gasoline and diesel had shot up 46 percent, to 34 cents a liter, which is about a quart. Many service stations had signs scribbled with fresh prices plastered over the gas pumps. At one station, a customer accused the attendant of trying to con him. Eventually, he was convinced the new prices were real and paid up. Another attendant, Masoud Abdel-Hamid, grumbled as he tried to calm customers. "They think the fuel increase will affect only the rich," Abdel-Hamid said of the government. "Oh, no. Everyone uses transportation." Last week, President Hosni Mubarak ordered a 30 percent pay raise for all government and public sector employees — almost 6 million people — temporarily assuaging a population increasingly restive over stagnant wages and rising food prices.