A number of car users in Casablanca have complained of electronic and technical problems affecting their cars’ engines after they were refueled by fuel stations in Morocco’s economic capital.
Dozens of those affected protested outside a fuel station earlier this week, demanding compensation for damage caused to their vehicles after they were refueled with poor quality or adulterated fuel, and called on monitoring bodies to investigate this incident.
One of the protesters revealed in a video to the news site:Heba Press“After refueling at the station, she had difficulty starting the car and although it started running later, she felt it was no longer damaged.” He pointed out that despite the maintenance and cleaning of the car engine, his car was stationary in bad condition.
In his testimony to the aforementioned website, he added that the vehicles of dozens of other people who refueled at this station and other nearby stations suffered the same damage.
The incident renewed the debate on the quality of petrol distributed in petrol stations, episodes that in recent months have been repeated in some Moroccan cities, in a context in which fuel prices are the subject of widespread controversy amid allegations of “monopoly and greed”. fuel companies.
MP Nadia Al-Tohamy of the Progress and Socialism group in the House of Representatives interacted with the complaints of those affected, directing Written question To the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development on the quality of the “casual”, or petrol, distributed in Morocco.
The text of the question stated that “a recent accident occurred at one of the fuel distribution stations for motor vehicles in the city of Casablanca, which has rekindled the debate on the question of the quality of the caseul material that is distributed in the national market, and this also happened in the city of Rabat, and there is no doubt that it also happened in other regions of the country.
The opposition parliamentarian Progress and Socialism Party added: “I was left with the bitterness of the situation in which many owners of vehicles who have used this type of fuel in their cars in recent days, after discovering a series of mechanical and electronic imbalances. in the engine systems of their vehicles. According to the opinions of specialists, the reason is due to its poor quality, which prompted them to protest against this, especially since it would cost them a lot to repair it, let alone deprive them of using their car for the entire duration of the break.
At a time when those affected are wondering who will support their compensation for these losses, and whether insurance companies will intervene to this end, the parliamentarian inquired in her question to the minister, about the context of the distribution of “this poor type of fuel that lacks quality standards, pollutes the environment and reduces its lifespan. ” defective car and harms the interests of consumers.
And he added: “This issue requires the adoption of a series of measures to strengthen our country’s import control of this type of fuel, to reveal the extent of its complete purity from all the excess that may have been mixed. with it due to shipments, unloading and storage operations, or some materials have been added for the purpose of fraud and commercial fraud. ” Asking for “discriminatory sanctions against the manipulators of this sector”.
And the Moroccan parliamentarian stated that “this reality is due, in addition to human factors, to reasons related to the gasoline supply chain, and to the fact that many suppliers purchase their needs at sea without supervision or responsibility and without knowing the origin of the fuels. purchased ”, calling on the government to work to provide globally recognized conditions in terms of quality and conservation of cars and the environment.
Interestingly, a recent report by the Competition Council in Morocco (official) revealed that fuel distribution companies have doubled their profit margins in recent years, recording what it called the “negative behaviors” of industry players. by nullifying their competition on selling prices.
Among the recommendations of the report issued late last month, an invitation to independent service providers to implement the best purchase prices and provide better quality fuel.
He has risen on the Moroccan street in recent weeks, calling for government intervention to cap fuel prices, after witnessing a significant rise in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused a parallel rise in prices. of most basic food products.
