Morocco's Customs Authority Investigates Disappearance of Companies

Morocco's National Customs Brigade has expanded its investigations into suspected customs fraud targeting exemption systems applied to imports of raw materials for export-oriented industries. The investigations follow monitoring operations that revealed the disappearance of industrial companies that benefited from tax and customs facilities to import goods valued at over 150 million dirhams (15 billion centimes).

Sources close to the matter have informed Hespers that the companies in question did not provide proof of re-exporting the manufactured products or settling their status with the customs and indirect tax authorities. There are suspicions that significant quantities of these imports were diverted to the domestic market and resold illegally. The ongoing investigations focus on importers active in the textile, electronics, and electricity sectors, who benefited from the temporary admission system for importing raw materials and industrial components with suspended duties and taxes, in exchange for using them in production processes aimed at export.

The review of the files of the concerned importers revealed discrepancies related to the mismatch between the quantities imported and the exports achieved, and the absence of documents proving the final destination of goods entered the national territory under conditional customs privileges. The customs authorities have relied on data from the Commercial Operations Monitoring Service, which detected, during the analysis of import files and customs declarations, cases of companies that benefited from the aforementioned system without recording corresponding export operations.

The detected cases raised suspicions about the exploitation of facilities granted to industrial contractors to introduce goods into the national market without paying the legal dues, especially since it was difficult to reach some of the concerned importers and determine the locations of their actual activities. Initial investigations, based on the intersection of data available to customs authorities, the General Directorate of Taxes, and the Commercial Register, showed that some of the monitored companies declared bankruptcy and ceased operations after carrying out a few and temporally close import operations.

Further investigations have been extended to review the declarations related to the imported quantities and the nature of the authorized raw materials, and comparing them with the production capacities.