The First Chamber unanimously adopts the draft settlement bill for the 2022 Finance Act

Hibapress

The House of Representatives unanimously adopted, during a legislative session held on Monday, the settlement bill No. 09.24 relating to the implementation of the finance law (LF) for the 2022 budget year.

During a presentation of this bill, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance, responsible for the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaa, praised the participatory collaboration between the parliamentary institution, the Court of Auditors, and the services of the ministry, in order to reduce the time taken to prepare and adopt settlement laws, explaining that “the settlement bill was submitted to the House of Representatives on March 5, 2024, with the aim of shortening these deadlines so that the settlement law achieves its objective, which is to discuss the closing of a financial year within a reasonable time frame.”

Furthermore, Mr. Lekjaa referred to the context in which the LF-2022 was completed, characterized by a difficult and turbulent international situation, during which the growth rate at the global level, having experienced a significant decline, did not exceed 3.5%, and inflationary pressures increased to reach 8.4% at the global level, and 8% at the level of the eurozone.

And to continue that, in accordance with the high royal directives, the government has taken a set of measures to alleviate this inflationary pressure, since more than 40 billion dirhams (MMDH) have been mobilized to cover various exceptional expenses that were not provided for in the LF, “thus making it possible to limit the impact of this inflation in various areas.”

Alongside all these factors, the collection of various ordinary resources, which recorded an increase of more than 45 billion dirhams, made it possible to face these pressures and control the level of the budget deficit which reached 5.4%, according to the government official.

Regarding the figures recorded by this Law, Mr. Lekjaa pointed out that the expenditures amounted to 462.44 billion dirhams, while the resources reached 360.63 billion dirhams, with a recovery rate of 103.77%. As for the special treasury accounts, he said that the expenditures amounted to 131.17 billion dirhams, while 151 billion dirhams were collected in resources, thus exceeding the 98 billion dirhams planned.

Regarding the autonomously managed State Services (SEGMA), Mr. Lekjaa indicated that operating expenses amounted to 2.1 billion dirhams, while investment expenses reached 462 million dirhams, noting that the LF-2022 provided for completion rates of 115% for resources and 81% for costs.