Hespress has learned from well-informed sources that the President of the Territorial Commune of Berrechid, belonging to the Berrechid province, has referred the file of collecting arrears on the tax on undeveloped urban land, worth one billion centimes, owed by a real estate company listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, to the local collector, who proceeded to seize the full amount of the debt from a bank account belonging to the company.
The same sources confirmed that the new measure came within an intensive tax collection operation led recently by the municipal council; by transferring the files of debtors to the services of the Kingdom's General Treasury and payment notices to others, to avoid the statute of limitations on debts and strengthen the commune's tax resources.
Hespress sources reported that the management of the debtor company tried to object to the forced collection process (Recouvrement forcé) by requesting a rescheduling of the tax debts owed to the Berrechid commune; however, the value of the debt amount and the slowdown in initiatives to settle it automatically during the past period accelerated its collection through the legal means available in such cases.
The sources stressed that the accounts of the same real estate company had been subject to executive seizure months ago by the local collector to collect 300 million centimes out of total arrears on municipal taxes worth 1.4 billion centimes, for the benefit of the neighboring Deroua commune.
The same sources confirmed that the Berrechid commune, which is currently suffering from a financial deficit, is awaiting its share of the Value Added Tax (VAT) coming from the Ministry of the Interior, as it was raised from 30 percent to 32 percent under the 2025 Finance Law. Its current council has proceeded to reduce the value of the "remaining to be collected" from debts owed to the commune in order to cover accumulated debts resulting from judicial disputes and compensation for holders of judgments against the commune, which is an inheritance from previous municipal councils.
It explained that the current municipal council of Berrechid, chaired by the Istiqlal party member Tarek Kadiri, faced major challenges in managing a legacy of collection imbalances, legal management of disputes, and reducing the stock of debts owed by debtors for many years.
Territorial communes have resorted to forced collection and seizures against debtor real estate companies, after Abdelouafi Laftit, Minister of the Interior, wrote to the presidents of the communes, under the supervision of regional Walis and provincial governors, to stop issuing building permits to investors and link this to the payment of debts owed to these communes, considering the linking of the two mentioned procedures as an illegal or unacceptable behavior, as it concerns two separate transactions, which are licensing and collection; the territorial officials issued their instructions to deliver the permits immediately upon fulfilling all legal stages, before initiating all relevant procedures and measures to collect the commune's dues and debts from the competent administrative and judicial authorities.
The newspaper's sources revealed that a committee from the General Inspectorate of Territorial Administration, which recently visited the tax department in the Berrechid commune, recorded positive observations regarding the organization and management of the tax collection process; by ensuring the adherence to legal procedures related to payment notices, before moving to amicable and forced collection thereafter.
It explained that the same observations concerned the economic and commercial activity licensing department, which is managed digitally; which helped in controlling the tax base and enhancing the efficiency of collection operations.
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