Bus Ticket Prices Surge in Morocco Ahead of Eid al-Fitr

Bus ticket prices have recorded increases ranging from 10% to 60%, reports the website Al3omk, adding that this increase could exceed these rates. This is worrying travelers who want to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with their families. This increase in bus ticket prices is "an extension of the unjustified tariff laxity, despite the support the sector has benefited from, and despite the drop in fuel prices globally, and relatively at the national level," denounces the president of the Moroccan Union of Consumer Protection Associations in Morocco.

For him, it is clearly a "fierce campaign against the purchasing power of the Moroccan consumer on every religious occasion, and sometimes even without occasion." He notes that this phenomenon persists despite repeated alerts due to "the lack of firm government intervention to put an end to this irresponsible behavior that spoils the joy of Eid al-Fitr for citizens." He then calls on the government to put an end to the attack on the purchasing power of Moroccans. He also calls on the Ministry of Transport and Logistics to assume its responsibilities to avoid disrupting the joy of travelers on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.

To recall, the ministry had authorized companies operating in public passenger transport by bus to increase ticket prices by 20% for exceptional intercity journeys made during these periods, in order to allow them to cover the costs of empty return journeys. Responding to a written question from a deputy, the former Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohamed Abdeljalil, had justified the observed increase in public passenger transport ticket prices during school holidays and holiday periods, by a need for transport companies to cover the "costs of empty return journeys", up to 20%.