Moroccan Restaurant Industry Fights Bank Account Seizures Amid Economic Crisis

Relying on the complaints of professionals and the presidents of professional associations affiliated with the Federation, as well as on ministerial order No. 05/2023, the application of which will end in mid-January 2025, the National Federation of Associations of Cafes, Restaurants and Tourist Units of Morocco has, in a letter addressed to Nadia Fettah Alaoui, Minister of Economy and Finance, recalled that "the socio-economic situation, in a context of recession and crisis, makes our demands a priority and a guarantee of survival for these moribund companies oscillating between life and death," reports Hespress. According to them, "the latest decision did not meet the expectations of professionals; which led to its rejection and the refusal to engage in it for objective reasons."

These reasons include "the difficulty of entering into any settlement without total exemption from increases and late payment penalties; because it is these that weigh heavily on professionals, who see in their maintenance no initiative of fair social settlement, as well as the adoption of the reports of the inspectors of the National Social Security Fund as being totally credible in everything that is written contrary to the provisions of Article 16 of the dahir of 27/07/1972," specifies the federation. Other reasons invoked: the problems related to "the absence of division of debts into installments adapted to the income and capacities of professionals, and the imposition of forced recovery through the procedure of seizure of bank accounts and commercial assets of professionals." This will only aggravate the situation of professionals.

Faced with this situation, the National Federation of Associations of Cafes, Restaurants and Tourist Units of Morocco calls for "the cancellation of the procedure of seizure of bank accounts and commercial assets of professionals, as well as the suppression and exemption of increases and late payment penalties for professionals, by making the payments, in case of willingness to settle, accessible to professionals without forcing them to a specific amount."