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Arrears to the state have exceeded 100 billion dirhams (DH) at the end of 2022, a significant amount when we know that the state budget deficit is 41.9 billion dirhams.
Although total tax revenues in 2022 amounted to 252 billion DH, representing 83% of the ordinary revenues of the general state budget, the actual net revenues collected by the General Directorate of Taxes (DGI) were significantly lower, reaching only 148.8 billion DH, points out L’ Economiste points out in its edition of Wednesday, December 27th.
DGI’s strategic plan for the period 2017-2021 envisaged reducing arrears by at least 10% per year, the business newspaper recalls. However, the latter actually rose by an annual average of 8% over the same period. The collection rate of tax debts remains very low and is only 45% in the period 2017-2021. The Court also points out the difficulties associated with the collection of debts due to the delays between their issuance and the corresponding tax year.
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Several obstacles hinder the effectiveness of tax collection. The Court of Auditors points to problems related to procedures, internal coordination, deadlines and the quality of shipments. Taxpayer information is not always sufficient, making it difficult to notify taxpayers. In addition, write-offs aimed at recognizing bad debts have not achieved the goals set by the DGI.
In the period 2017-2021, tax cuts were made to restore the actual level of tax liability. They amounted to more than 31.6 billion DH. However, the poor quality of certain tax issues is contributing to the increase in arrears. The waivers and waivers of penalties totaling DH14.5 billion are not sufficiently rationalized, according to the Court of Auditors, highlighting the need to distinguish between penalties waived due to taxpayer insolvency and discounts granted by the tax administration.
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The Court recommends improving the management of foreclosure actions, in-depth analysis of arrears to identify bad debts and more reliable tax issuance to avoid exacerbating the problems. These recommendations aim to strengthen tax fairness and good citizenship and emphasize the importance of maximizing revenue to finance the structural reforms necessary for the state.
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