Fuel Station Owners Ignite National Strike Over Black Market Crisis

"Faced with growing informal competition and claiming to be ignored by the institutional authorities, these professionals are now considering protest actions," reports the daily Les Inspirations Éco. Among them, a sit-in in front of the supervisory ministry and a national strike, the date of which will be communicated later. These actions aim, among other things, to remind the authorities that the survival of the sector depends on strict control of the parallel market and real consultation with the field actors. The wish of the service station owners is that the authorities associate them with the decision-making process engaging the life of their profession. Otherwise, the decisions will lack legitimacy.

The National Association of Owners, Merchants and Managers of Service Stations claims that it has been sending several letters to the competent authorities for more than a year, demanding sincere dialogue and concrete answers on priority issues, such as the regulation of off-network sales or the contractual conditions imposed by certain distribution companies, without receiving any response. According to them, even the alerts on the difficulties encountered by the managers and on the imbalances in the sector will apparently have served no purpose.

The only concrete initiative of the public authorities is the proposal for a technical meeting on September 26, focused on the marking of petroleum products, set up by the ministry in partnership with the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration. In the eyes of the professionals, the priorities are elsewhere. "The urgency is not the marking, but the fight against the expansion of a parallel market that escapes all rules," fumes a member of the association’s executive office. The latter denounces the negative impact of the informal trade on the approved stations, which respect the standards and legal obligations, but also the proliferation of mobile stations mounted on wheels, clandestine depots or tanks installed in the heart of construction sites and housing estates, sometimes visible, sometimes hidden. "These illegal structures weaken the approved network and expose residents and employees to major risks," warns Jamal Zrikem, president of the association.

The managers also denounce the price differentials that they consider unfair. While B2B sales benefit from a discount of nearly two dirhams per liter, the approved service stations receive only a 40-cent reduction.