Rabat – Morocco’s exchange office has announced its decision to raise the tourist endowment for personal travel to MAD 100,000 ($10,780), with an additional endowment of 30% of the income tax, all capped at MAD 300,000 ($32,342) per person annually.
Initially, the tourist endowment was MAD 45,000 ($4,851) per year. The new measure aims to relax foreign-exchange regulations regarding day-to-day and capital transactions.
The office explained that the endowment can be used on travels abroad, whether for tourism, religious purposes such as Umrah and Hajj, or for medical reasons.
The new measures include raising the e-commerce endowment to MAD 200,000 ($21,561) for Moroccans abroad without a foreign currency bank account, allowing them to pay for services with an international payment card.
The office announced in the same document the increase of the ceiling of annual transfers for investments abroad of legal persons to MAD 200 million ($21 million).
To support and encourage innovative start-ups engaged in new technology, the office “increased the e-commerce endowment to MAD 1 million ($107,809), with a possibility of investing abroad.”
The announcement also included easing the rules for managing accounts in foreign currencies and in convertible dirhams for exporters by the possibility of settling imports of goods and services in advance or with a deposit rate higher than the authorized ceiling.
The document also states the possibility to pay by international payment card all imports of services for the exporter’s business needs.
The news comes as Morocco’s traditional vibrant tourism sector is undergoing a serious slump amid constant last-minute border closures and other drastic preventive measures the Moroccan government has had to introduce to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its emerging variants.
According to Statistica, the tourism industry’s share of the Moroccan economy is expected to increase to $18 billion by 2025.
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