COVID Relief: Morocco Slashes Check Bounce Fines for Pandemic-Affected Individuals

The draft law 69-20 relating to the reduction of tax fines on checks, which takes up the provisions of decree-law 2.20.690, has just been voted by the House of Councillors, announces L’Économiste which specifies that the vote of this text is in line with the measures taken by the government to deal with the perverse effects of the health crisis on the national economic fabric.

During the presentation of the text to parliament, the Minister of Finance indicated that "the exceptional reduction of the tax fines to be paid to recover one’s checkbook is particularly interesting, especially for repeat offenders who are already on their 3rd payment incident, or more: 1.5% instead of 20% of the check amount".

According to the newspaper, the objective is to "preserve the credibility of the check as a means of payment for commercial transactions, to allow issuers to return to the banking financing perimeter, to regularize the situation of thousands of check bans and to promote the integration of the maximum number of operators in the formal economy".

With the health crisis, bounced checks are estimated at 78,444 payment incidents in a single month. The situation is explained, according to the newspaper, by the fact that "the ban on checks consequently leads to the exclusion from bank financing, in particular the Damane pack, guaranteed by the Central Guarantee Fund (CCG)".