Revenues from levies imposed on the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Morocco, over the past year, have increased significantly, even and far exceeding the official expectations included in the 2021 finance law.
According to the LF’s execution report for the past financial year, revenues from royalties imposed on alcohol and spirits amounted to approximately 810 million dirhams, against 651 million dirhams expected. The report, published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said revenues from the levy imposed on beer types amounted to 1 billion dirhams in 2021, when the government planned 800 million dirhams. It appears from the figures included in the report that the revenue from the two fees increased by approximately 359 million dirhams.
It is therefore clear that the consumption of these drinks has increased considerably over the past year. And to illustrate that one energy can like this famous train hide another, the royalties of the Algerian gas pipeline passing through Moroccan soil for Spain amounted at the end of October 2021, date of its closure, to around 763 million dirhams , while the 2021 finance law did not provide for any revenue in this respect. On the halal side, revenue from fees imposed on soft drinks and lemonade also increased during 2021. Indeed, they reached around 504 million dirhams, while we expected 450 million. of dirhams.
In addition, data from the report indicate that the levy imposed on manufactured tobacco generated revenues of approximately 11.7 billion dirhams, against forecasts of 11.2 billion dirhams. While the Executive was counting on revenues of around 196 million dirhams, the cost of preparing passports also amounted to around 343 million dirhams, thus indicating the increase in the number of requests for obtaining and renewing passports.
In general, the report on the execution of the 2021 finance law revealed a negative balance of around 63.6 billion dirhams, due to ordinary resources, not including borrowings, reaching around 393 billion dirhams. . Expenditure was around 456.9 billion dirhams, excluding debt amortization.
Borrowing income amounted to approximately 91.5 billion dirhams over the past year, and debt amortization of approximately 49.4 billion dirhams, the execution of the 2021 finance law is resulting in a negative balance of about 21.5 billion dirhams. Ordinary revenue (tax and non-tax) reached approximately 261.1 billion dirhams, which represents 53.9% of total state resources, estimated at 484.8 billion dirhams.
Total state resources also include revenue from state services operated independently, which amounted to 2.6 billion dirhams. In addition, income from borrowings amounted to 91.5 billion dirhams, and income from private treasury accounts amounted to 129 billion dirhams. On the other hand, the total expenses of the State, during the past year, amounted to approximately 506 billion dirhams.
These costs include ordinary expenditure from the general budget of 258 billion dirhams, and investment expenditure of 82.3 billion dirhams. Data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance included in the report indicates that the total costs of the State also include expenditure from private accounts for the treasury, which amounts to approximately 114 billion dirhams, in addition to expenditure debt consumption, which amounted to 49.4 billion dirhams.
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