Social Services Feature Prominently in Morocco’s 2019 Appropriation Bill

The 2019 appropriation bill prepared by the Moroccan government and submitted for the approval of the parliament increases spending on social services, the reduction of social and spatial disparities as well as the promotion of enterprises.

To that end, the government planned to spend an additional 7 billion dirhams as the budget dedicated to education and health rose to 96 billion dirhams in the 2019 appropriation bill, Economy and Finance Minister Mohamed Benchaaboun said at a joint session of the Upper and Lower House.

The draft bill also plans to inject 3.3 billion dirhams to boost salaries and 5 billion dirhams increase in state contribution to public investments, which was set at 195 billion dirhams, the Minister said.

He added that 2.7 billion dirhams will be invested in the implementation of reforms such as regionalization, the reform of the judiciary, regional investment centers and retirement funds.

This will create financial needs of 27 billion dirhams, he said, adding that the state will take necessary measures in order to improve tax collection as well as other measures allowing for adding 5.7 billion dirhams of additional resources.

These measures include imposing a tax of 2.5% on the companies with profits above 40 million dirhams, he said.

According to the minister, the state will also review its contribution to public enterprises through a gradual structural reform of these enterprises targeting improved governance and management model with the goal of promoting investments.

The government is also setting aim at the rationalization of functioning spending and the review of the economic and financial model of public enterprises, he said.

Thanks to these actions, Morocco could bring the deficit to 3.7 percent without counting privatization, he said.

The government expects the economy to grow by 3.2%, inflation at less than 2% in the appropriation bill and a budget deficit of 3.3%.