A good step has been taken by Minister of Supply and Domestic Affairs Basem Ouda to tighten supervision over fuel stations to monitor distribution and selling of different fuels, notabl diesel, of which the continuing serious shortage threatens the transport process with coming to a full standstill. In a tour of fuel stations in Giza, Minister Ouda discovered the presence of some 36 million litres of petrol and diesel stored by the stations for selling on the black market. Herein, the minister decided starting a new system to supervise fuel products whether at stations or storage facilities to monitor the quotas for each station and daily report of the sold quantities. Nevertheless, this does not refute the fact that there is a real diesel shortage in the market, which situation has caused the Ministry of Supply to request the Ministry of Finance to speedily obtain the funds needed for importing more quantities of the fuel. (Egypt spends around $25 million daily on importing fuels to meet the needs of the local market.) Experts warn of the escalation of the crisis soon with the start of the wheat season and its higher demand on diesel for the harvesting process. Moreover, of some 23,000 tonnes of imported wheat, some 4000 only have been transported from the Safaga silo on the Red Sea to the southern governorates to produce subsidised bread there. Lack of diesel at different fuel stations prevents the smooth transport of imported wheat to the market and threatens to ruin the grain, because it is being kept for days in lorries. Therefore, it might be the right time to take strong procedures against hoarders and profiteers that threaten the national economy and societal stability and issue laws to tighten penalities. These could even extend to closing a fuel station and cancelling the licence of one storing subsidised petrol to sell on the black market. The problem is not only limited to the long lines of different means of transport in front of fuel stations every day waiting to get their need of diesel but also menaces the distribution of imported products as well as locally produced commodities reaching the market.
