Minister of Economy and Finance Nadia Fattah Alaoui denied circulating news about an upcoming prive increase in butane gas prices in 2023, a product that has historically been subsidized by the state.
During a television interview on the national broadcast channel SNRT (Al Oula), the minister confirmed that gas subsidies will continue, as will those for wheat and sugar, for which MAD 26 billion have been allocated in the 2023 Finance Bill.
The official however, did say that the government is studying the possibility of suppressing the subsidies in the long term.
Contrary to recent reports, the price of a gas in Morocco will not change in 2023, as the government is currently working on generalizing health coverage and creating new mechanisms to support vulnerable groups, measures that will require more ressource, and leading to a tightening of state expenses.
The confusion initially started following Faouzi Lekjaa’s statements to the press last week, when the Minister in Charge of the Budget said the executive is reconsidering subsidies for goods, for the alternative of direct financial aids to underprivileged groups.
The government is working to speed up the implementation of the unified social registry as a mechanism through which the groups that will be targeted, and granted direct support will be provided for these groups in the event that butane subsidies are lifted.
Starting Thursday, October 27, the Ministry of the Interior began working on the National Population Register at the level of a group of workers affiliated with the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region, as an initial step, pending its expansion to the rest of Morocco’s workers and regions.
Government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas had previously confirmed that producing the unified social registry will allow “the census of the underprivileged in Morocco,” and is still ongoing considering the intricacy and significance of the data compilation, incremental to its success.
Recent news about a possible increase in butane gas, which would set it around MAD 120 per bottle, exacerbated Moroccans’ recent outrage at ongoing and accelerating inflation, considering that many goods and services’ prices have noted a sharp spike lately.
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