CAIRO – The fuel shortage adds fuel to the flames of people's misery. People get humiliated by the Government's lack of tackling the fuel issue, which is leading to dangerous fuel price hikes and a daily struggle to get fuel from stations or resellers, who raise the price. “This is the most disastrous event I have ever witnessed,” complained Hesham Mahmoud Khalil, 58, who has been working as a driver for over 25 years. “In the past, we concentrated on earning a living. Nowadays, we waste half the day with looking for a drop of fuel. All queues are getting longer and longer, getting bread takes forever,” Khalil, who lives in the Delta Governorate of Daqahliyya, told Arabic-language Al-Wafd opposition newspaper. All car owners suffer from the ongoing crisis. “Some citizens monopolise fuel. They fill 20-litre canisters and sell them on the black market,” Alaa Abdel-Hameed, a teacher who owns a car, complained. In Sinai, people suffer from the same shortage. “The fuel crisis is getting bigger and bigger. We are forced to pay the high prices but ask the Government to supply us with this vital commodity,” said Sherif Zaafan, a taxi driver working in Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai Governorate. In the Giza streets, traders double the fuel prices. They sell 80-octane petrol for 200 piasters instead of the usual 90 piasters. “I buy 80-octane petrol for 130 piasters at a local petrol station,” said a trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity. According to Egyptian law, the Rations Departments, affiliated to the Ministry of Social Solidarity, have the authority to monitor the market and file legal complaints against violators. “Corruption is still spreading. A number of employees at Rations Departments still receive bribes in return for turning a blind eye on violations,” Mohamed Moustafa, a driver of a three-wheeled tok-tok, complained. However, Ministry of Social Solidarity officials deny such accusations. “Our employees do their job properly and monitor violators. They launch campaigns to prevent petrol smuggling to Sinai,” asserted Abdel-Samee' Soweilem, the General Director of the Rations Department at the Canal Governorate of Ismailia. “Many drivers come from neighbouring governorates to supply their cars with fuel. The soaring demand causes big problems in Ismailia,” Soweilem said. For their part, the owners of petrol stations deny responsibility for the crisis. “The drivers claim that we are causing the fuel shortage. We have to make things clear,” said Nasser Ibrahim, who owns a petrol station. “The petrol companies that supply the stations with petrol are responsible for the shortage. Petrol station owners are not stashing petrol away to cause a crisis. It is not the petrol stations' problem, we sell what we get, and we sell according to the prices we pay,” he added. “Before the January 25 revolution, the companies supplied us daily with the required amount. Nowadays, they deliver only once a week,” he explained.
