Three days after the implementation of the Government’s decision to increase the price of butane, public reactions are calming down. The ball is set in motion by the professionals, more precisely the distributors. They complain that the decision to increase the price of a 12 kg gas bottle by 10 dirhams and a 3 kg bottle by 2.5 dirhams does nothing for their profit margin.
Mohamed Benjelloun, president of the Professional Association of Wholesale Liquefied Gas Storage in Morocco, was quoted by the daily Al Akhbar in its edition of Thursday, May 23, states that “Experts were surprised by this decision made by the government to increase gas prices”.
However, the announcement was made a few months ago. This is also confirmed by the president of the association, specifying that “This decision on the price increase was expected for a month and 20 days. The government has clearly expressed its intentions on this issue. But we did not expect that its implementation would be carried out in this way, surprising everyone.
The president of the association disputes not only the time of entry into force of the decision, but also the fact that “does not foresee an increase in the profit margin of wholesale gas depositories, despite the increase in fees, both transportation costs and labor costs“.
However, he believes that the way the Government proceeded, announcing the decision a day before it came into effect, can be explained by the desire to avoid speculation and illegal gas storage. Which could lead to shortages.
In order to avoid this situation, explains Mohamed Benjelloun, “The government did not communicate with us, and individual officials from the supervisory ministry were not informed either”.
As for retailers, the head of the association confirms that they applied the price increase in the usual way last Monday, as planned. “We do not have any stock of this material”, he added. However, he insists on the fact that there is a feeling of anger among the distributors. The latter even considered the possibility of a strike, and thus the suspension of distribution. But for now, “We cannot make this decision, we are waiting for the Government to receive us in order to initiate a dialogue on future measures“.
As the daily writes, the Government, represented by the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Finance and Economy, has already held a coordination meeting to which it invited the Ministry responsible for energy transition and representatives of the professional association of gas wholesalers.
This meeting, the newspaper cited by this department points out, is part of the implementation of the social assistance program and the beginning of the process of partial decompensation of butane gas.
Per Amyne Asmlal
May 22, 2024 at 9:15 p.m.