Morocco Revises Penalties for Bounced Checks: New Bill Enters Parliament

The text adopted under Article 81 of the Constitution has been reintroduced into the legislative process and the bill approving this text has just landed in the House of Representatives. On December 9 last, this bill was submitted to the Commission on Productive Sectors, reports L’Economiste, specifying that the new scale provides for a rate of 0.5% of the amount of the check subject to the 1st incident, 1% of the amount for the 2nd incident and 1.5% for the 3rd incident, compared to 1% for the 1st injunction, 10% for the 2nd, and 20% for the 3rd, previously.

Thus, the Minister of Finance, during the presentation of the draft decree-law, reported 78,444 bounced checks identified by the banks for the month of August alone.

Given this situation, it is essential to reduce the penalty rates provided for, to facilitate the restoration of the right to issue checks, especially for VSEs and SMEs, heavily impacted by the health crisis. In addition, the new system will last 6 months, from the period of publication of the decree-law in the Official Gazette at the end of September last until March 31, 2021. However, under Article 2 of the decree-law, it is possible to extend this deadline, but on condition that this is done during the period of the state of health emergency.