Tax revenues increased from 199 billion dirhams (billion dirhams) in 2020 to 299 billion dirhams in 2024, thanks to the implementation of tax reform, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Finance announced on Monday in Rabat. economy and finance, responsible for the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaa. In response to questions on the “assessment of the implementation of the tax reform” in the House of Representatives, Mr. Lekjaa specified that the increase of 100 billion dirhams, recorded during this period, was entirely allocated to financing the social programs. In this regard, he indicated that these resources made it possible to finance social dialogue to the tune of 44 billion dirhams, direct aid with 35 billion dirhams, as well as 19.5 billion dirhams to cover contributions to medical coverage.
In detail, the minister stressed that the average annual growth in revenue reached 11%, noting that corporate tax (IS) revenue increased from 48.8 billion dirhams to 70 billion dirhams in 2024, while those of Value Added Tax (VAT) increased from 56 billion dirhams to more than 89 billion dirhams, an increase of more than 59%.
As for income tax (IR), revenues recorded a notable increase, going from 40 billion dirhams to 59.6 billion dirhams, an increase of 49%, attributed to “the broadening of the tax base tax, in particular for income not linked to salaries, in particular those coming from independent economic activities,” according to the minister.
In this context, Mr. Lekjaa recalled that in 2025, measures are introduced to reduce the tax burden, in particular the exemption of salaries not exceeding 6,000 dirhams per month, while the middle classes, earning less than 15,000 dirhams monthly , benefit from more than 70% of the financial efforts allocated to this reform, which amount to 8.5 billion dirhams.
And to let it be known that the problem linked to the IR of retirees has been resolved, with 164,744 beneficiaries of the exemption, or 86% of civil service retirees. Furthermore, the government is working to simplify the tax system and adapt it to economic specificities, in particular through the establishment of the Single Professional Contribution, in order to facilitate tax procedures for medium-sized liberal professionals, raised the minister.
Measures were also introduced to combat tax evasion, such as the generalization of withholding tax and the strengthening of tax control mechanisms, which made it possible to collect 17.77 billion dirhams in 2024, compared to 14.06 billion dirhams. MMDH in 2023, an increase of 26.4%, he continued. Regarding the results of the voluntary regularization operation of the tax situation, which reached 127 billion dirhams, Mr. Lekjaa specified that 77 billion dirhams were collected via bank declarations, 48 billion dirhams through direct declarations to the Management General Tax Administration (DGI), and 2 billion dirhams for property and assets held abroad.
Thus, he affirmed that “citizens who have declared their income and placed their funds in their bank accounts are free to use them, whether for direct investments or the acquisition of real estate”, while reiterating “the commitment of the tax administration to guarantee total confidentiality and not to carry out any subsequent tax revision, in order to encourage taxpayers to declare their income spontaneously.
The minister also underlined that the application of the 5% rate within the framework of the finance law will make it possible to generate additional resources of around 6 billion dirhams for the State, “thus contributing to strengthening confidence between taxpayers and the ‘tax administration’.
And to conclude that this approach “aims to contribute to the structuring of the national economy, to the strengthening of its development capacity in the face of increasing investments and to the reduction of the budget deficit to 4% in 2024, with a downward trajectory towards 3 % by 2026, while stabilizing the public Treasury debt at 69.5% of GDP. »
