Highlights

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Nizar Baraka called, Tuesday, June 11th in Rabat, for strengthening the fight against under-invoicing, through setting up a monitoring and evaluation system, boosting cooperation with various public / private partners and capacity building and human resources. "To deal with under-invoicing practices, source of unfair competition and injury for some domestic sectors, the only answer is the firm for a strict adherence to the legal environment, through free trade agreements, tariff reform and a significant decrease of the tax burden on imports, "stated Mr. Baraka at the meeting of the Committee on fight Against Under- Invoicing.

The Minister explained that the under-invoicing phenomenon, which objective is to reduce the value of imports so as to lower the amount of duties and taxes at risk, is not only damaging for the state due to the shortfall in tax revenue but also for the economy as a whole, by distorting competition rules.

Thus, Mr. Baraka highlighted the Administration of Customs and Indirect Taxes` (SDII) efforts, which allowed ,in 2012,to redress the equivalent of 6 billion dirhams (billion dirhams) that generated $ 1, 7 billion dirhams of duties and taxes added to the amount of the determined duties and taxes , observed by company`s monitoring services, which amounts to more than 457 million dirhams.

On this occasion, the Minister announced the residence of the Secretariat of the Committee for the Fight against under invoicing within the ADII, as well as the holding of regular meetings for the National Committee (once a year) and the Technical Committee (every two months).

For her part, the President of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), Mrs. Meryem Bensalah Chaqroun, identified the main areas to improve, including a better categorization of importers, physical and fiscal importers traceability and the identification of added value creative industries.

According to the Director General of the ADII, Mr. Zouhair Chorfi, the role of the Customs Administration is to reduce the use of under-invoicing practices, through strengthening control in businesses. This can be done through a joined action with the private sector action, setting up standby principal, reporting, evaluating and identifying areas which represent some weaknesses.

Established in 2010, the under-invoicing technical Committee aims to put forward measures in the short and medium term as regards the fight against this phenomenon.

The members of the committee are representatives of the Departments of Industry and Trade, the ADII, the Directorate General of Taxation and the exchange Office , in addition to representatives of the CGEM, the Moroccan Association of Industries, Textile and Clothing (AMITH) and the Association of biscuits, Chocolates and Confectioners makers.