Marruecos prevé reducir los impuestos a los medicamentos en 2023
In a press release, the Moroccan Ministry of Health specified that this decision, which will be notified as part of the 2023 finance law plan, is in line with the will of King Mohammed VI, who places health and its access to Moroccans at the heart of national concerns. To ensure that Moroccans have access to health services, the government is seeking to inspect the taxation of medicines and health goods. Mechanisms are being put in place to introduce VAT on the importation of these products, starting in 2023.
The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khalid Ait Taleb, and the deputy minister in charge of the budget, Fouzi Lekjaa, are in the process of finalising a social decision aimed at reducing VAT on medicines and taxes on imported medical devices, medical and paramedical devices and materials.
The Ministry of Health and Social Protection had first communicated that it was taking imminent steps to develop and secure the national strategic stock of medicines and health products exposed to actual or potential shortages or disruptions by 2023, to ensure adequate and continuous supply and to take all necessary measures to prevent and mitigate any supply rush, the statement clarified.
In this regard, a steering committee bringing together all the parties involved has been set up, the text says, adding that it will be responsible for determining the needs for medicines and health products related to this stock, in particular medicines of great importance for therapy.
This reform proposed by the Ministry of Health is intended to help the government's plan to improve the Kingdom's healthcare system. This reform of the system for the next five years will be supported by four essential pillars such as good governance, the foundation of new generation hospital structures, the training of new skills and the digitalisation of the healthcare system, as the minister said in an interview with Le360. "In five years, this reform, focused on four pillars, will give a complete and effective healthcare system," he said. On digitalisation, Khalid Aït Taleb said his department is working to offer remote and real-time care by linking patients and health centres. "The taxpayers' share of health spending, currently 60%, will increase to 25% by 2030 as part of this reform," he announced.
These measures will also be of great help to people suffering from mental illness because, as market analyst Abdelmajid Belaiche reported, there has been an alarming increase in the use of psychotropic drugs since the start of the pandemic. These are the effects of the health crisis on the mental health of Moroccans. The dirham volume of total consumption of psychotropic drugs increased from 860 million dirhams in 2019 to 960 million dirhams in 2020 (an increase of 11%). In 2021, this consumption amounted to 980 million dirhams (an increase of 3%), reports le360.
Khalid Aït Taleb returned to the investment agreement his cabinet signed with an Israeli firm. He expressed that an amount of 5 billion dirhams will be used to build five hospitals, mainly in Berkane and Essaouira, with a public-private management formula and following a win-win model. "After 10 years, according to the agreement, these hospitals will be owned by the Moroccan state," said the minister.
This decree will also help the health system because according to Newsweek, which has published its ranking of the 250 best hospitals in the world for 2022 in collaboration with the Statista Institute, no Moroccan hospital is on the list. Only two hospitals in the Arab countries are ranked among the best hospitals in the world. These are the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Saudi Arabia (126th) and the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (129th).