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Rabat – Tax revenues rose by 8.7 percent in the first months of 2017 and Caisse de Compensation bill revenue increased by 63 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, said Mohamed Boussaïd, Minister of Economy and Finance on Thursday.
According to the minister, the new draft of the 2017 Finance Bill aims to achieve a growth rate of 4.5 percent and create 23,768 jobs and 11,000 contractual employment positions with the Regional Academies of Education and Training for the recruitment of educational executives.
This project also seeks to achieve a budget deficit within 3% of GDP, based on natural gas price assumptions of USD 350 per tonne, and controlling the rate of inflation to 1.7%.
Boussaid also stressed that the draft law aims at implementing the guidelines adopted at the Council of Ministers meant to accelerate structural change in the national economy through the focus on industrialization and export, the reinforcement of competitiveness, and the promotion of private investment. “This project is also about the qualification of human capital and the reduction of social and territorial disparities, as well as the consolidation of the mechanisms of institutional governance,” he concluded.
Public Investments
The new draft of the 2017 Finance Bill (PLF) mobilized MAD 190 billion for public investments, including a budget of MAD 63.6 billion intended for the Administration, During the presentation on the PLF N °73-16 this Thursday to the Government Council, Deputy Minister for Relations with Parliament and Civil Society and official government spokesperson Mustapha El Khalfi pointed out that these investments concern public establishments, public administration, and local and regional authorities.
The project also foresees the continuation of the dynamics of public investment, including those relating to sectoral strategies, by allocating MAD 8.9 billion to the Plan Maroc Vert, MAD 3.7 billion to the Industrial Acceleration Plan and MAD 11.7 billion to renewable energies, Boussaïd added.
The PLF, submitted to Parliament during the Council, whose work was presided over in Rabat by the head of the government, Saad Eddine El Othmani, emphasizes the need to accompany the implementation of major projects, by allocating a budget of MAD 1.2 billion to highways, MAD 6 billion to railways, MAD 1.5 billion to airports and approximately MAD 20 billion to the construction of ports.
The Bill’s Social Dimensions
The bill also stipulates support for social strategies, particularly education, higher education, health and housing, whose cost is estimated at MAD 10 billion, Boussaid said, adding that MAD 3.8 billion will be allocated for education, MAD 2.4 billion for health and MAD 2.5 billion for housing.
The implementation of a program to reduce social and spatial disparities, with an overall budget of MAD 50 billion, is also one of the main axes of this bill, which aims to increase the budget allocated to investment by 3.6% in comparison with the year 2016, he said, considering that this reflects the effort made in this area.
In addition, a total of MAD 106.7 billion will be reserved for the payroll of civil servants, while an amount of MAD 27.47 billion will be devoted to debt interest and MAD 14.65 billion to compensation, Boussaid explained.
On the other hand, the PLF contains a series of measures aiming to encourage private investment and the enterprise, such as the exemption of the newly created industrial companies from corporate taxes (SI) for a period of five years.
Among these measures are also the development of industrial integration between export processing zones and the rest of the national territory and the tax exemption on VAT for 36 months to companies incubating new projects under investment agreements for an amount exceeding MAD 100 million, as well as exemption from income tax (IR) on a permanent basis of the gross monthly training allowance capped at MAD 6,000.
