Fuel prices resumed their upward trend. This increase is expected from Monday, October 17, 2022 and will be around 1.60 dirhams for diesel and 70 cents for gasoline. However, the Competition Council, in its latest report, warned that price inflation on local markets, in particular the rise in fuel, is due to external pressure on prices, as well as to the predatory practices of companies that profit the current state of the market.
Referring to the reasons for inflation, the government has always retorted the excuse of the war in Ukraine and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. But in its latest report, the Competition Council has said extortionist practices and a lack of political will to implement market reforms “might be to blame” for the gas price spike.
After falling by nearly 1 dirham two weeks ago, fuel prices are starting to rise once more. According to data collected by the National Federation of Owners, Traders and Managers of Moroccan Service Stations (FNPCGS), the price of diesel is expected to increase by around 1.60 dirhams per liter and that of gasoline by almost 70 cents.
The price of a liter of diesel should thus be around 15.50 dirhams, when a liter of gasoline will exceed 14.65 dirhams at certain dealers in Casablanca. Fuel prices at gas stations in other cities in the Kingdom will be even higher, due to the cost of transportation.
Faced with the vertiginous rise in the prices of raw materials and the unprecedented rise in fuel prices at the pump this year, the Competition Council published an opinion on September 26 to analyze the competitive functioning of the Moroccan market.
He thus pointed to a high level of concentration in this market, calling, among other things, to review the regulatory framework, introduce a tax on super-profits and study the opportunity to develop refining activity in Morocco.
The Council’s report had indicated monopoly power is greater since the country’s eight largest energy companies control nearly 85% of fuel imports, according to the report’s data.
The rapport highlights much of the 2020 paradox in the Moroccan fuel market; at the height of the Covid crisis, fuel prices in Morocco were at status quo levels, while fuel prices fell on the international market reflecting the drop in demand amid the lockdown.
