Marrakech Factory Faces 40 Million Dirham Tax Hike, Sparks Discrimination Probe

In this case involving the municipal council, the judicial police are directing their investigation towards the tracks of religion and partisan positions, informs Al Ahdath, noting that the facts date back to the period when the town hall increased the amount of fees for occupying the public domain that this factory should pay, thus going from 30,000 dirhams to 40 million dirhams. An astronomical amount in the eyes of the factory owners, surprised by the changes made by the PJD as soon as it took over the town hall, and who filed a complaint with the wali of the region to inform him of their intention to close down. They claim to be specifically targeted by the local affairs managers on the municipal council, because of their Jewish faith.

The file was handed over to the public prosecutor’s office, which in turn entrusted it to the judicial police for investigation. Already, the DST services have reached a conclusion pointing to religious discrimination as the main reason in a report, reports the newspaper. However, after summoning and questioning the head of the tax base service at the town hall, it appears that for several years, the company in question has paid a fee of 30,000 dirhams for occupying the public domain, well below the 500,000 dirhams provided for by the law governing this sector. Nevertheless, the company complains that it was not warned of the changes before being imposed an unexpected fee of 40 million dirhams.

The judicial police are at work to find out if religion, as well as the position of the PJD with regard to normalization with Israel, are not really the source of this problem, stressed the Arabic daily, which announces the summoning in the coming days, of other parties involved in the case.