It is true that crisis profiteers exploit any pretext, even the most unfounded, to accumulate profits and amass wealth to the detriment of defenseless citizens. The events that accompanied the Al Haouz earthquake are a perfect example, when some sellers exploited Moroccans’ need for blankets and mattresses to send them as aid to disaster areas, thereby increasing their prices.
It seems that the situation is currently repeating itself, although under different pretexts. Some traders increased the prices of several products and consumer goods directly after the Ministry of Economy and Finance partially withdrew support for butane gas.
Immediately after the price of the large gas bottle rose to fifty dirhams and that of the small to 12.5 dirhams, some increases began to appear on the horizon. Some vegetable sellers and bakeries have added 20 cents to the price of bread, although the increase in the price of butane gas can only influence the price of a loaf by 0.1 cent according to several experts. In other words, the additional costs for producing 20 loaves are 20 cents, whereas now, bakers earn 20 cents per loaf, or a profit of 4 additional dirhams for every 20 cents added to the price of butane gas. Thus, an increase of 10 dirhams for the gas bottle translates into profits higher than the real value of the gas bottle itself.
The same justification was used by some café and restaurant owners in Casablanca, who were divided between those who imposed the increase and those who refused it. Some have added a dirham to the price of consumption, although this pretext seems weak given that cafes do not consume large quantities of butane gas, and it is therefore unjustifiable to add a whole dirham at once to cover the costs. costs of increasing the price of butane gas. However, some cafe owners have maintained normal prices without any increase.
Some cafe owners exploit the law on free pricing and competition to impose what they deem appropriate to make profits, without taking into account the protection of purchasing power that the government strives to guarantee. However, such behavior undermines all reforms, which also remain insufficient, leaving the simple citizen, defenseless, as the real victim, the one who pays the bill and must bear increases sometimes imposed without legal justification.
