At a meeting organised by the Moroccan concrete industry association Amib, cement companies have criticised the special tax on cement, which accounted for MAD 154 million (€14.27 million/US$15.81 million) in tax revenue in 2014.
Difficulties in the cement segment have seen consumption fall by 6.09% to 13.95 million tonnes in 2014.
The tax accounts for 9% of the cost of cement, which itself accounts for 50% of the cost of concrete, with the industry noting that it necessarily has a price impact that is felt by consumers.
Amib has claimed that the money spent on the tax could be used to create four to five factories/year, and has also stated that it threatens the production of social housing, which has an upper limit of MAD 250,000.
