The start of the work of the regional multi-service companies in some regions of the Kingdom was not smooth, as it quickly created controversy after large segments of the population found themselves facing skyrocketing increases in monthly bills for domestic and professional electricity consumption specifically.
Evidence of this is that large segments of the population of the Souss-Massa region have complained recently, and are still complaining, about increases in electricity consumption bills for the month of November, as there was talk of increases of double in some cases, which sparked great tension that quickly alerted officials to seek solutions.
According to explanatory data in this regard, "the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water has no longer been concerned with the distribution of these two vital materials since the regional multi-service companies began operating in four regions of the Kingdom, including Souss-Massa, Marrakech-Safi, Casablanca-Settat, and the Eastern region."
According to the same data, the Office "only oversees matters related to production, which makes the issue of distribution and the collection of bill amounts the responsibility of these companies, which were established under Law No. 83.21, which primarily concerns the twelve regions of the Kingdom"; a matter that places the responsibility on these regional multi-service companies.
Returning to the case of the Souss-Massa region, citizens in recent days revealed the existence of increases in electricity consumption bills, which they considered "exaggerated and not at all equal to what was being collected before the arrival of the Souss-Massa regional multi-service company."
Due to the succession of complaints and the rising intensity of anger among the region's population, the Taroudant provincial prefecture was forced to intervene, as an emergency meeting was held on Thursday, in the presence of M'barek Thabet, the provincial governor, and the general manager of the Souss-Massa regional multi-service company, along with the heads of the communes in the same province, to reach some solutions.
Among the solutions is "reviewing the increases that exceeded 25 percent of the usual consumption for customers whose consumption was billed based on an estimation, without checking the meter, in addition to making this task one of the tasks of private companies, for the purpose of carrying out special billing and avoiding monthly billing," at a time when it was confirmed that "the electricity tariff has not changed when the services were assigned to the Souss-Massa regional multi-service company."
The company concerned with the subject explained for its part that "the item of fixed dues in the old bill, amounting to 17.42 dirhams, represents the same total amount for maintenance, connection, and meter rental expenses in the new bills," calling on citizens to "look at the details and compare them to ensure that the billing has not undergone any changes."
In a related context, the Moroccan Association for Consumer Protection and Guidance in Ouled Teima described the increases in electricity bills in the city and neighboring cities as "obscene," confirming the need to "inspect the meters again and update the data to be consistent with what is recorded in them, in addition to committing to inspecting the meters on a monthly and continuous basis away from estimates."
For his part, El Houssine El Yousfi, a civil society actor in Taroudant, acknowledged the existence of "increases in electricity bills for last November, which reached record levels"; and the strange thing, according to him, is that "these bills do not contain the numbers of the previous month, and these increases affected almost everyone, which is something that is happening for the first time."
El Yousfi added, in a statement to Hespress, that "these increases were recorded with the entry of the new company, which raised many questions among citizens, as the scenario proposed today is that the matter resulted from resorting to the process of estimating consumption without checking what the meters recorded."
It should be noted that a segment of the population of Ouled Teima also signed a petition addressed to the director of the Souss-Massa regional multi-service company, confirming within it "the need to send a specialized committee to examine the meters and ensure their technical integrity, in addition to reviewing the bills and ensuring the accuracy of the readings recorded in the meters."
Hespress read complaints from a number of residents of the Souss-Massa region who denounced the increases they found recorded in their electricity consumption bills in November, as they agreed that the increases "often exceeded one hundred percent," holding the Souss-Massa regional multi-service company responsible for that, while emphasizing the need to find immediate solutions.
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