Moroccan cooking gas distributors may stage strikes as early as this week to pressure the Islamist-led government to increase distribution margins, two senior industry representatives said.
“Our margins have not changed since 1998,” Mohamed Benjelloun, chairman of the Moroccan Gas Distributors Association, said in a phone interview yesterday from Casablanca. “Our 500-odd members have decided that they can no longer wait and strikes may happen.”
The threat increases pressure on the government’s subsidy reform plan for energy, sugar and wheat flour prices that has been stymied by strong opposition from its junior coalition partners and fear of a social backlash. Morocco opened its coffers during Arab Spring protests two years ago, increasing subsidy spending, public-sector wages and pensions. Its current-account deficit reached 10 percent last year.
Distributors are seeking to increase margins by at least 0.5 dirham for a 3-kilogram canister and 1.5 dirhams for a 12-kilogram canister, according to the association’s vice chairman Yahya Madani. Eliminating the subsidy on cooking gas would push the retail price of the larger canister rise from 42 dirhams to over 120 dirhams, the two officials said.
A first warning strike of as long as 48 hours will be staged at the start of fasting month of Ramadan, expected to begin in the second week of July, Madani said by phone from Tangier.
