Customs duties: Details of amendments adopted
During debates on the draft Finance Bill 2025, no fewer than 97 amendments concerned customs duties, several of which were accepted.
■ The obligation of electronic payment was introduced in the Customs Code, as is the case for taxes. The measure makes it compulsory to pay customs duties and taxes electronically; otherwise, a surcharge of 1% with a minimum collection of 1,000 dirhams (USD 100) is applied. Exceptions to this compulsory electronic payment are payments made by government departments, public institutions, the Central Bank (Bank Al-Maghrib) and the Foreign Exchange Office. Partial payment of duties and taxes in cash, particularly for Moroccans living abroad wishing to clear goods through customs.
■ Article 167 of the Customs Code : The initial provision concerned exemption from customs duties for imports of materials and equipment required for the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project. The amendment was made following an ECOWAS meeting last October, attended by Morocco and Mauritania, during which agreements concerning the project were signed between the various countries. Following this, it was decided to change the name of the project. It is now called the Africa Atlantic Pipeline. No more talk of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline. This is a way of giving the project an Atlantic dimension, in line with the royal initiative to give Sahel countries access to the Atlantic Ocean.
■ Protecting national production: An amendment was proposed to increase customs duties from 10 to 17.5% for optical fibers manufactured in Morocco. Since this amendment was aimed at protecting national production and the import substitution policy, the government accepted this change.
■ Tax marking of petroleum products deferred by one year: An amendment presented by the Government concerns the entry into force of tax marking of petroleum products, particularly diesel and gasoline. The principle of this measure was set out in the 2024 Finance Act. However, to allow the system to be put in place and operators to prepare, the obligation was deferred until January 1, 2026. This amendment was adopted unanimously.
■ FIFA and affiliated institutions exempted
Another change concerns FIFA. Under Article 164, the initial system provided for the exemption of materials and equipment imported by or on behalf of the International Football Federation. It subsequently turned out that FIFA was not alone. Other affiliated institutions such as CAF ( African Football Confederation) were added to the list of beneficiaries of these exemptions.
Mohamed CHAOUI
