Moroccan gas stations owners call on government for exemptions from tax

The owners and managers of gas stations in Morocco called on the government to exempt them from the minimum tax that was calculated according to the transaction rate.

The National Federation of Owners, Merchants, and Managers of Gas Stations in Morocco demanded an immediate response to the proposed amendment to Article 144 of the General Tax Code, coinciding with the presentation of the draft 2023 Finance Bill in Parliament.

Gas station owners and professionals said that if the government continues to ignore these just and legitimate demands, they will protest and suspend activity.

The Federation also expressed complete solidarity with Moroccan citizens in the face of rising fuel prices, stating, “we are also affected by corporate greed, and we call on the government to intervene urgently.”

The President of the National Federation of Owners, Merchants and Gas Station Managers, Jamal Azrikem told Hespress AR that the door of dialogue is often closed.

The president stated that his Federation will continue to wait in order to meet with the Minister of Energy Transition, urging the government to hold talks and negotiate on resolving the outstanding issues, the most pressing of which is the issuance of regulatory laws related to the hydrocarbon law.

The Federation’s president also warned of a legal vacuum, as evidenced by the lack of regulatory texts for the law governing petroleum products, which was issued more than five years ago.

The Federation demanded that the joint committee work on the legal texts be activated, emphasizing that “the absence of the latter results in chaos in the sector, and the victims remain the owners of the stations and consumers in the first place,” according to the same source.

During November alone, fuel prices witnessed another spike, with gasoline reaching almost MAD 15 per liter, while diesel amounted to MAD 16.55 per liter, according to data seen by Hespress.