Moroccan Business Group Proposes 10 Amendments to Boost Economy Amid Pandemic

This videoconference, organized a few hours before the examination and vote, in plenary, of the PLFR by the House of Advisors, allowed the CGEM to put forward a dozen amendments, the most important of which can be summarized as the deductibility of contributions to the Special Fund for the Management of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the exemption from late payment penalties for IS installments until December 31, 2020, the staggering of payment of additional taxes for voluntary regularization between December 15 and June 30, 2021 and the inclusion of the year 2019 in the regularization scheme.

Discussing the major impacts of the health crisis on economic activity, Chakib Alj, President of the CGEM, notably emphasized the tourism sector, which is by far the most affected, with a 77% drop in turnover between May 2019 and May 2020. Based on the results of the 2nd edition of the survey on the impacts of the crisis conducted by the CGEM among more than 3,304 companies, operating in 11 different sectors and employing more than 500,000 people, Chakib Alj also noted that several other sectors have experienced a decline in turnover. These include the craft sector with 70%, the cultural and creative industries with 68%, education, construction and public works, real estate as well as commerce, at 63%.

During this press conference on the Amended Finance Bill No. 35.20 for the year 2020, Mehdi Tazi, Vice-President General of the CGEM, for his part insisted on the 7 flagship measures of the CGEM’s recovery plan, aimed at supporting supply, demand and cross-cutting measures. He argues that as part of the supply, the CGEM has suggested "extending wage support over time partially for people laid off to accompany sectors in difficulty, like tourism and textiles". If for the President of the CGEM the measures taken for sectoral recovery are "weak", Mehdi Tazi will note that "the PLFR 2020 does not contain measures on the demand for extension of the granting of the lump-sum allowances of 2,000 dirhams from the CNSS".

Regarding demand, the CGEM is betting on public procurement as a lever for recovery, continues Mr. Tazi. One will have to take great account of a fundamental remark according to the Vice-President General of the CGEM. This is "the drop in the level of public procurement by 16 billion dirhams (MMDH) at the level of the PLFR-2020, compared to the Finance Act 2020".