by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus
The Moroccan government has announced that it will suspend import tax on wheat as part of a plan to maintain an adequate supply of grain in the country.
Under the current regime, imports of bread wheat are typically taxed during the Moroccan harvest to help local farmers to sell grain to millers. As locally-produced stocks start to dwindle, duties are then reduced to maintain supplies of grain in the country. However, new figures show that Morocco’s wheat reserves are drying up.
In a statement, the Agriculture Ministry said that import duty on soft wheat will be suspended from October 1 to December 31, 2012.
This summer’s drought has caused a sharp decline in domestic wheat production, which has in turn prompted the national wheat reserves to dry up from 2.35m tonnes in late July to only 1.3m tonnes in late September. Last year, the domestic demand was at 7.1m tonnes, and it is estimated that Morocco has to import around 4.3m additional tonnes by the end of the year.
Tags: tax | trade | Morocco | import duty | food
