Moroccan Customs Generate over $10 Billion in Revenue

Business

May 26th, 10:59am

Rabat - Asharq Al-Awsat

Terminal I of the Tangier Med port in the northern city of Tangier, Morocco (File photo: AFP)

Moroccan customs recorded $10.3 billion in revenue in 2019, up from $10.08 billion in 2018, announced the Customs and Indirect Tax Administration (ADII). It published a recent report on its 2019 activities, describing customs revenues as a “continuing upward trend”, indicating that last year's collected revenues reached $10.1 billion and the total revenues reached $10.3 billion. ADII explained that the revenue increase is due to the “remarkable development in imports,” expressing satisfaction over the 3 percent growth from 2018, according to Morocco’s national news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP). The report showed that the value-added tax (VAT) represented 58 percent of the total amount of budgetary revenue, followed by the internal consumption tax (ICT) with 31 percent, and then import duties which showed a 10 percent of the total. It also noted that VAT receipts increased by 3 percent to $5.7 billion due to a quasi-stagnation of VAT receipts on energy products, offset by the increase of VAT on other products by 3 percent, or over $150 million. Revenues collected under the pipeline fee amounted to over $100 billion, a 34.2 percent drop compared to 2018. The decline is due to a 45.7 percent drop in volume, offset by the increase in price by 6.4 percent. Meanwhile, the internal consumption tax increased by 6 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year, which is due to the good performance of all the headings of the tax, including an over 5 percent on manufactured tobacco, above 6 percent on energy products, and other goods with 11 percent. Over the last five years, VAT represented 57 percent of budget revenue, showing an average 4-percent annual increase, according to ADII. The internal consumption tax also continued its upward trend with an average annual growth of 4.6 percent and a share average budget revenue of 31 percent. Despite recorded fluctuations between 2017 and 2018, import duties showed a positive average of 4.7 percent over the last five years, according to ADII. Meanwhile, smuggled cigarettes amounted to 5.23 percent of the Moroccan market during the past year The Administration stated that the results of the sixth study on smuggled cigarettes for 2019 revealed it represented a 5.23 percent of the national level, compared to 3.73 percent in 2018, and 5.64 percent in 2017. The report highlighted that this increase is attributed to the recent increase in the official prices of cigarettes, noting that this rate is still very low compared to rates recorded in many countries.

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