2025 Finance Bill. The government will continue its efforts to maintain purchasing power

The guidance note for the preparation of the draft finance law for the year 2025 indicates that the government will continue to implement measures aimed at preserving the purchasing power of citizens, by continuing to support basic goods and services, including butane gas, refined sugar and wheat flour, by allocating the equivalent of 16.5 billion dirhams to the compensation fund.

This memorandum, addressed by the Prime Minister to the ministerial sectors, specifies that the government will also continue the implementation of tax and customs measures with a social dimension, aimed at exempting widely used consumables, in addition to continuing to support animal feed and fertilizers in order to preserve plant and animal capital.

The government will also continue implementing the general reconstruction and rehabilitation program for areas affected by the Al Haouz earthquake, by continuing its direct support for the rehousing of disaster-stricken populations and the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure.

The memorandum states that as an interim measure, “nearly a year after the occurrence of this painful tragedy, 59,438 damaged buildings have been counted, and as of July 1, 1.4 billion dirhams had been disbursed to approximately 57,000 beneficiaries, including 1.1 billion dirhams.” belonged to the first part of the subsidies, which were set at 20 thousand dirhams for each beneficiary. As for the second tranche of subsidies, which were set at 20 thousand dirhams for rehabilitation works and 40 thousand dirhams for reconstruction works, 206 million dirhams were paid to 9,584 beneficiaries.

In this regard, technical and architectural assistance was provided to beneficiaries of the housing reconstruction and rehabilitation program, and a monitoring system was created to monitor the prices of basic construction materials in the earthquake-affected areas.

In order to speed up the reconstruction process, a simplified procedure for granting building permits has been put in place, with committees in the form of one-stop shops, as well as the use of the latest surveying technologies, such as drones, in order to issue building permits without waiting for the end of clearing operations.

She indicated that the inter-ministerial committee approved an urgent work program in which each sector is committed to carrying out its own projects, including the reconstruction and rehabilitation of health and educational institutions and the preparation of roads, in addition to starting to disburse aid to workshop owners and owners of hotels and cooperatives, and developing a program to start… Disburse aid for reconstruction, rehabilitation and equipment to owners of commercial outlets.

In a related context, the government will strive to complete the consolidation of the commitments made under the program to reduce spatial and social disparities, which has made it possible to obtain a set of significant achievements, which are reflected in the level of progress in the implementation of programs and projects that have concerned 1,243 local authorities, for the benefit of a total rural population estimated at 14 million people, with credits amounting to 45,000 billion dirhams.

The government will also continue implementing the direct support program for the purchase of primary housing, which targets around 110,000 families annually, particularly low- and middle-income social categories, and also includes Moroccans residing outside the country, with a financial envelope estimated at 9.5 billion dirhams annually during the period 2024-2028.

It is worth noting that this program has seen a qualitative response since its launch at the beginning of this year, since the support provided by the State has exceeded 1,500 million dirhams for the benefit of more than 18 thousand beneficiaries until July 31, 2024.

As part of the redoubled efforts to eliminate forms of inadequate housing, including shanty towns, and improve the living conditions of their inhabitants, the government will strive to implement a program to rehouse the remaining families, which, according to currently available statistics, represents approximately 120 thousand families spread across the national territory, with the aim of declaring all Moroccan cities “cities without shanty towns” by 2029.

The implementation of the various programs included in the third phase of the National Initiative for Human Development is at the heart of the draft finance law, in particular projects aimed at improving the income and economic inclusion of young people, enhancing human capital for rising generations, and keeping pace with people in vulnerable situations.

On another level, the government will also strive to implement the initiatives and measures included in the government program, which concern the economic and political empowerment of women, as well as the protection and care of women victims of violence.

Measures to enable persons with disabilities to enjoy their fundamental rights in the areas of education, health care, vocational rehabilitation, employment and access to sports, cultural and recreational activities will also continue.