Morocco Rules Out Return to Subsidized Fuel Prices, Citing High Costs

The affordable fuel prices at the pump (7 dirhams per liter of diesel and 8 for gasoline) will no longer be practiced in Morocco. This is at least what Mustapha Baïtas, government spokesman and member of the political bureau of the Rassemblement national des indépendants (RNI) said on Saturday, September 10 in Agadir on the occasion of the party’s Summer University. According to the minister, returning to these prices would require the state to inject 60 billion dirhams in subsidies, which the government is not ready to do, reports the daily L’Économiste. Especially since it has already taken certain social measures. Present at this political mass of his party, the head of government Aziz Akhannouch recalled that the budget of the Compensation Fund has gone from 16 to 32 billion dirhams this year, including 17 billion to stabilize the price of the gas bottle (40 dirhams instead of 140). This position of the government will result in the continued rise in fuel prices.

The other wish of many Moroccans is the restart of SAMIR which, according to them, could "cushion the shock". "It’s not the only solution, but part of the solution," insisted Mustapha Baïtas, stressing that Samir could solve a number of problems, particularly storage and refining. However, the shortage will persist, as Morocco is not a hydrocarbon producing country. The indebtedness of the refinery (40 billion dirhams), new investments in facilities, in upgrading equipment and in modernizing production tools, the regularization of the refinery’s situation vis-à-vis Moroccan banks (Banque Populaire, Attijariwafa bank, Bank of Africa, Crédit du Maroc) and foreign banks (Islamic Development Bank and BNP Paribas in particular) are all problems to be solved before any restart.