Morocco Sees 40% Surge in Illegal Cigarette Trade, Customs Report Shows

These figures are "the results of the 6th study on the prevalence of smuggled cigarettes for the year 2019". They reveal a rate of introduction of smuggled cigarettes on the domestic market of "5.23% against 3.73% in 2018, 5.64% in 2017 and 7.46% in 2016". The ADII, in its activity report, explains that "this 1.5 point increase between 2018 and 2019 was induced by the recent increases in the prices of cigarette packs sold formally at the national level." It adds that this rate remains nevertheless very low, compared to what is recorded in several countries.

It should be noted that according to the data published by customs, "119 tons of cannabis resin, 13.5 million cigarette units, 63 grams of hard drugs and 680,000 psychotropic tablets were seized during the same period. As for the additional revenue collected by the Moroccan Customs, it reached 3.6 billion DH in 2019, thus showing the prowess of the strengthening of the various types of control and the electronic exchange of data with the main partners of the customs administration.

Among other actions, there is "the recovery of customs duties on Royalties, which resulted in the collection of 450 million DH in 2019 and the last four unbarred years. Effective cooperation between the ADII and the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) has made it possible to collect more than 155 million DH. Similarly, the fight against currency trafficking carried out at the various border points, resulted in the seizure of the equivalent in foreign currency of more than 129.9 million DH," the same source specifies.