Petroleum group of Morocco (GPM) came together on Monday to object to Istiqal Party (IP) Secretary General Hamid Chabat’s recent accusations against Aziz Akhannouch, Minister of Agriculture, in what they called a “blatant ignorance of Morocco’s price standards.”

GPM’s meeting on Monday rejected Chabat’s comments on the State subsidy for butane gas, saying that he intended “to spread false information and mislead public opinion.”

In a gathering organized by Chabat in Kenitra on Saturday, the IP Secretary General accused Akhannouch of stealing MAD 13 billion intended to go towards gas compensation.

In a statement by the GPM, in which it called itself “at the heart of the field and constantly connected to the actuality of the sector,” the group expressed “its astonishment at these statements as inaccurate as they are ignorant”

The GPM explained that gas companies are supplied with gas at high prices which they then re-sell  at prices determined by the government in order to make gas at the consumer’s reach.

72% of Morocco’s aid budget is allocated for butane gas, according to a report by Morocco’s compensation fund.

In a previous meeting of IP  in Fes, Chabat accused Akhannouch of  corruption, indicating that his fortune, valued at almost $ 2 billion, is equivalent of “all that 30 million Moroccans own.”

Source :Morocco World News