Morocco’s opposition groups criticized some of the 2023 Finance bill proposals during the general debate in the Finance and Economic Development Committee Wednesday.
The opposition groups emphasized that the next year’s budget does not address Moroccans’ current problems, including social fragility, low purchasing power, drought, and poverty.
The High Commission for Planning (HCP) recently said that in the third quarter of 2022, 81.5% of households reported a deterioration in their living conditions over the past 12 months, in light of the high inflation and soaring prices of most food products.
An estimated 3.2 million more people fell into poverty in Morocco as a result of the spike in prices and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released two weeks ago by the High Commission for Planning (HCP).
The total of those affected includes people who fell into poverty (1.15 million), and vulnerability (2.05 million), added HCP.
Absence of a participatory approach
In this regard, the Socialist Group, in the words of its head, Deputy Abderrahim Chahid, before starting to discuss the draft finance law for the year 2023, criticized “the government’s control over the preparation of the project completely in the absence of any participatory action that enables political actors and parliamentarians to contribute effectively and seriously in decision making,” he said.
“This holds the government accountable for its ability to implement the government program on which it gained Parliament’s trust,” he added.
Chahid went on to say that the project “does not provide legitimate answers to the main problems of the national economy, the most pressing of which is energy sovereignty, as well as the problem of water and food security, warning that “Morocco will remain dependent and unstable unless precise and proactive measures are implemented through participatory public policies.”
Credibility of expectations
For his part, the Head of the Progress and Socialist party in the House of Representatives, Rachid Hamouni, said, “We are in the midst of a very important political and legislative moment,” emphasizing the weight of responsibility placed on both the Parliament and the government.
“We must not forget that all Moroccans, from all segments and categories, have expectations, aspirations, and hopes,” he further stated.
Hamouni considered that it is up to the government to truly demonstrate its intentions and translate its promises expressed in the electoral programs of its components and in the government program.
The Head of the socialist party emphasized that “through this project, citizens will “evaluate their ability to carry the outputs of the new development model, if not completely, at least in terms of the initiation of activation.”
Rationalization of public finances
On behalf of its president, Idriss Sentissi, the social movement party emphasized the importance of the finance bill in citizens’ daily lives, noting that “it should not be limited to only some directions, but rather it should involve the majority parties’ and the government’s programs.”
Sentissi emphasized that “his team deals with this constitutional date with a lot of responsibility, based on its position on the opposite side that seeks to contribute to citizen support for democratic construction,”
He also stressed that they accompany the government’s work with “constructive and purposeful criticism, through many observations and suggestions to amend what was stated in the Finance Bill.”
More recently, the Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch defended the 2023 Finance Bill before parliamentarians earlier this week, arguing that the new draft will ensure the implementation of the social state ambition, while taking public education’s quality to the goal level.
“Raising Moroccans’ standard of living and responding to their aspirations is the true compass of the government’s interventions,” said Akhannouch, adding that these ambitions are at the heart of public policies, measures, and actions.
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