The continuous and vertiginous rise in the price of hydrocarbons in Morocco raises great concern both among ordinary citizens and among road transport professionals. They also deplored the ” weak ” financial support paid by the government to deal with this surge in prices, and are brandishing the threat of a general strike. Point.
Last March, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics announced the official launch of the exceptional support process for professionals in the road transport sector, which was validated during the Government Council on March 10, 2022, for the benefit of some 180,000 vehicles, all segments combined.
Since then, road transport professionals, registered via the mouakaba.transport.gov.ma platform, receive monthly financial assistance from Moroccan taxpayers’ money. After five disbursements, the road transport unions considered that this aid was ” weak “ in the face of the continuous rise in fuel prices, and that the number of beneficiaries put forward by the government does not reflect the situation experienced by many categories of professionals.
In the process, the government revealed the total amount paid as part of the exceptional support process for professionals in the road transport sector, since its launch to date, and which amounts to 3.014 billion dirhams.
That said, the data on the beneficiaries of this process raises many questions from the side of the unions in the sector. In this regard, they sent a letter to the government calling on it to present to the public the official data concerning the details of the aid.
According to the unions, the number of beneficiaries of this process has decreased, noting that the figures put forward by the government are not ” exact » and do not reflect the situation of professionals and how they receive support.
Until the end of last week, and according to the data available MoroccoLatestNews, the number of requests received via the grant granting portal, for the 6th installment for the month of September 2022, amounts to 90,631, while the amount allocated to this operation is estimated at 383,030.200 million dirhams. An amount which has still not been paid to the beneficiaries and which, according to the unions, should be revised upwards.
In a statement to MoroccoLatestNewsMounir Benazzouz, secretary general of the National Union of Road Transport Professionals, affiliated to the Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT), estimated that “ the support currently provided to professionals and the figures announced relate to a situation where the price of fuel was 12 dirhams and not 17 dirhams per liter“.
“The amount of support for the month of September is very low in addition to the fact that it is not distributed in the required manner”lamented the trade unionist, stressing that the union will seize the Court of Auditors in order to examine the granting of the aid.
The trade unionist explained that “within three weeks at most, professionals will observe a national general strike against the dysfunctions that mark this subsidy operation noting that the union’s demand is to “ cap the price of fuel for professionals, or at least double the amount of subsidies “.
“The support serves no purpose. Maintaining it or suspending it is the same “, maintained the trade unionist, underlining the absence of dialogue with the government before concluding: “There are groups who deserve this help and who have not benefited from a single dirham “.
It should be recalled that the government launched, on September 28, 2022, the 6th phase to benefit from the additional exceptional subsidy granted to professionals in the transport sector on the dedicated platform, Mouakaba.