Rabat – The opposition parties at the House of Representatives expressed doubts about the 2020 appropriation bill (PLF). The opposition parties stated that the bill is based on an outdated development model that “contains numbers disconnected from reality.”
The representatives made the comments during a parliamentary session yesterday, October 30.
During the session, Mohamed Boudrar, member of the Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) estimated that the bill is a transitional project, solely “focused on controlling the budget deficit.”
The bill is based on “an outdated development project,” Boudrar added. The member of parliament (MP) also recalled the results of the court of auditors’ 2018 report. The report revealed “shocking results concerning the lack of efficiency in public administrations’ management.”
Boudrar also questioned the growth rate of 3.7% for Morocco’s gross domestic product (GDP) predicted by the 2020 PLF. According to him, the annual growth rate wouldn’t exceed 3.2%, “in the best of cases.”
Istiqlal Party representative Noureddine Moudiane also said that “the impact of the different budgets is in decline.”
“The executives should adopt proactive programmes and emergency measures to improve the social situation and to have a positive impact on citizens’ lives,” he added.
Moudiane called for holding Moroccan officials accountable for their decisions. It is necessary to take the court of auditors report into consideration to avoid “superficial economic and social solutions,” and for the 2020 PLF to not be a “simple reproduction of previous ones,” according to the MP.
Aicha Lablak, representative of the Progress and Socialism Party (PPS), insisted on the importance of a reform in the fiscal system to make it more equitable and avoid “any forms of legal tax evasion.”
Lablak called for the elaboration of a strategy to make the national economy more dynamic. She also called for the adoption of annual action plans to reach results in the short term.
The Moroccan government adopted the 2020 PLF on October 17. The bill targets a growth rate of 3.7% for the Moroccan GDP in 2020.
Some of the major changes in this year’s bill were a slight increase of health and education budgets. The budgets for these crucial sectors increased by 30% compared to the 2019 bill.
