Morocco Launches Crackdown to Recover Millions in Unpaid Customs Debts

Reducing the "remaining to be recovered" bill and recovering tens of millions of dirhams owed by offenders, as part of large-scale cases related to smuggling, including customs fraud, drug trafficking, and prohibited goods. These are the objectives of the new recovery operations currently being carried out by the recovery services of the General Customs Administration. These amounts could not be fully recovered by customs for years, due to the insolvency of a large number of these offenders and the impossibility of identifying material assets (real estate, movable property, or assets) on which to carry out seizures and auctions, according to well-informed sources at Hespress.

According to the same sources, customs recovery services have intensified seizure operations on real estate and movable property belonging to offenders, as part of recovery cases for the benefit of the Treasury for customs and criminal offenses in which the customs administration has become a civil party. They have primarily used data exchange channels with partner administrations, notably the General Tax Directorate, the National Agency for Land Conservation, Cadastre and Cartography, as well as registration centers under the National Road Safety Agency (NARSA).

Recovery efforts have also targeted the most significant amounts, which for years remained mere figures suspended in databases, as part of a strategic operational change in recovery that combines legal realism and economic efficiency. The customs administration has thus sought to exploit this orientation to transform fictitious debts into real revenue for the State Treasury.

These operations are already bearing fruit: already a reduction in the value of the "remaining to be recovered" in the customs administration’s accounting records. The recovery services of the General Customs Administration have also prevented significant debts from falling into the "uncollectible" category.