The Ministry of Economy and Finance, announced that the execution of the Finance Law (LF) for the year 2024 took place in a difficult context marked by the strong exposure of the Moroccan economy to a international dynamic impregnated by moderate growth, and exacerbated by the multiplication of sources of geopolitical risks and the tangible accentuation of climate crises.
In its Note on the closing results for the year 2024 in terms of public finance statistics, the ministry specifies that despite this disruptive and uncertain international context, the government has continued its commitment to redress the trajectory of public finances in the meaning of better sustainability.
According to the implementation situation of the 2024 Finance Law, the budget deficit continued its downward trend to stand at 3.9% of GDP for the year 2024, compared to 4.4% in 2023.
This control of the budget deficit, explains the MEF, finds its origin in the improvement in ordinary revenue of more than 49 billion dirhams (MMDH) or 15.2% compared to the year 2023, to stand at 372.6 MMDH for the year 2024.
This dynamic in ordinary revenues, whose average annual change over the period 2020-2024 is 13%, is attributable in particular to the sustained increase of MAD 37.6 billion or 14.3% in tax revenues compared to 2023, resulting in an achievement rate of 110.8% compared to the FL 2024 forecasts. In total over the period 2020-2024, revenue tax revenues recorded a pronounced increase of MAD 101.4 billion, representing an average annual increase of 11% for the same period.
In detail, the evolution of tax revenues compared to the year 2023 is distributed as follows:
– TVA : +12.4 billion dirhams (+6.3 billion dirhams for import VAT and 6.1 billion dirhams for internal VAT)
– Income Tax: +9.5 billion dirhams
– Corporate tax: +8.4 billion dirhams
– T.I.C : +3.7 billion dirhams
– Registration rights: +1.5 billion dirhams
– Customs duties: +1.4 billion dirhams.
-On the other hand, the note continues, the implementation of the tax amnesty aimed at encouraging taxpayers to voluntarily regularize their profits and taxable income, not having been declared before January 1, 2024, by paying ‘a discharge contribution set at 5% of the value of declared assets and expenses (liquid assets deposited in bank accounts, liquid assets held in fiat currency in the form of bank notes, movable or immovable property acquired and not intended for professional use, and advances in partners’ current accounts), made it possible to achieve exceptional results which far exceeded initial forecasts.
Thus, this operation resulted in the declaration of a total of 125 billion dirhams, distributed up to 77 billion dirhams from bank declarations, and 48 billion dirhams from declarations registered with the General Directorate of Taxes and made by 8,000 declarants.
These results thus reflect the success of this operation in achieving the expected objectives, both in terms of consolidating trust between the tax administration and taxpayers, as well as in terms of improving tax compliance, or even in terms of mobilizing significant funds for the benefit of the financial sector in order to strengthen its financing capacities of the national economy. This, in addition to its contribution to strengthening Treasury resources of more than 6 billion dirhams.
Furthermore, this good performance of revenues made it possible to cover the increase in overall expenditure (+23.2 billion dirhams or +5.7% compared to the year 2023), resulting in particular from the measures taken by the State in 2024 to face inflationary pressures, mainly:
– Increase in salaries of all civil service bodiesin particular, doctors, teacher-researchers, staff in the national education sector, magistrates. IGFs, legal advisors, DGSN staff, registry secretariat staff, nurses, engineers, administrators, editors, military personnel… The total estimated cost is 13.8 billion dirhams in 2024 for the benefit of nearly 1,127,000 beneficiaries
– Support for transport professionals passengers and goods having cost a total amount of MAD 1.71 billion for the year 2024
– The subsidy granted to the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water in the amount of 4 billion dirhams to keep electricity prices unchanged
– Implementation of measures aimed at controlling inflation of food products and combating the effects of drought (subsidies for barley, livestock feed, seeds and fertilizers), the amount of which amounts to nearly 1 billion dirhams. This in conjunction with the continuation of support for the prices of basic products, by mobilizing 25.4 billion dirhams
– Maintaining the investment dynamic during the year 2024 which resulted in an increase in investment expenditure emissions of 6.6 billion dirhams or +6% compared to the year 2023, to reach 117.4 billion dirhams.
At the same time, the effort to rationalize operating expenses has made it possible to achieve savings of around 5 billion dirhams for the year 2024.
