El Gobierno marroquí anuncia nuevas medidas compensatorias a los transportistas

The war in Ukraine is having a serious impact on world economies. Russia, in response to the severe sanctions being imposed on them by world organisations for their act of war, is blocking the exit of several essential products for society. One of these is gasoline, which all countries around the world are seeing an ever-increasing supply of. Morocco depends on Russian suppliers for its supplies, and after the strike called a week ago following this increase, the Moroccan government has announced that it will finally finance the transporters so that they can continue to carry out their work.

"Faced with this exceptional situation, the government has chosen to intervene to support professionals in the sector in order to preserve the purchasing power of citizens," announced Mohamed Abdeljalil, the Kingdom's Minister of Transport.

The decision was taken following a meeting between the Ministry and the various associations defending the rights of transport workers. Following the 72-hour strike a week ago, the government announced other measures to compensate for the price increase, such as the allocation of 250 million dirhams to renew the country's vehicle fleet and the donation of 100 million dirhams to train drivers. Simplifying the process of obtaining vehicle registration plates was also reported. 

Industry professionals were grateful for the gesture. After the meeting, they have finally made their voices heard. All transport operators, whether they belong to the freight sector, public passenger transport such as buses, taxis and others, will be able to benefit from the aid proposed by the government of Aziz Akhannouch.

"The government will intervene to ensure that the supply of citizens is maintained in good conditions," commented Fouzi Lekja, the minister in charge of the budget, at a press conference after the meeting.

The executive also announced that this consensus between the government and transport professionals has concluded that within two weeks, transporters will be able to start benefiting from the aid. "In the coming days, we will meet again with the professionals and announce the nature of this support and we will work on the creation of a digital platform to facilitate its concession to the professionals who need it," said Minister Abdeljalil.

"During this meeting, it was unanimously agreed to continue discussions starting next week to provide drastic solutions to these problems so that the sector can overcome the obstacles that hinder its development," continued the minister.

Morocco is experiencing a period of social unrest and its population is dissatisfied with the situation. Moreover, it is worth noting that the escalation of prices is not only affecting fuels, but that several basic foodstuffs from Russia and Ukraine have already risen considerably in price, and Moroccans are struggling to obtain them.

The effects of the war are having a severe impact on the international economy, and many countries such as Morocco are trying to find a solution to alleviate the effects of this crisis. In view of this growth, the Budget Minister said that the government is already assessing the situation. In addition, he said that in order to preserve the Kingdom's purchasing power, more than 15 billion dirhams should be mobilised, mainly to combat the increase in the price of butane gas, petrol and basic foodstuffs such as wheat and flour.

The latest figures, collected a week ago, confirm that petrol is currently priced at 12,960 dirhams a litre in the Alawi kingdom. This is a sharp rise, since on 28 February, four days after the outbreak of war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price was set at 11,700 dirhams. But before the conflict, in January, the price of petrol was around 10,300 dirhams.