Government Tightens Control On Imports

Government continues to impose restrictive measures on import operations in order to reduce the import bill which has taken an upward trend in exchange for diminishing public treasury resources.

This new procedure comes to identify the terms of the Commercial Registry’s powers that is granted to those involved in the import of raw materials, products and goods that are intended for resale with 2 renewable years.

Trade Minister, Mohamed Ben Meradi, signed a new ministerial decree that is specifying the validity of the commercial registry extract that is granted to the practice of certain activities.

The decree that is issued in the latest number of the Official Gazette, identified the terms of reference of the commercial register of those who are involved in the importation of raw materials, products and goods that are intended for resale are limited to two renewable years.

According to the decision, upon expiry of this period of validity, the commercial register shall be without effect and the commercial company that is concerned with import shall request its cancellation in the case of its practice of importation activity for sale only

Trade Ministry set an exception in the case of several activities, as the commercial company is required to modify its trade register by deleting the relevant activity, and in doing so, the control authorities request its removal from the Commercial Register.

The same ministerial decision, the case of commercial companies that are wishing to renew their trade register for the exercise of activities, they shall be granted a period of 15 days before the expiry of their validity period for renewal.

Import operations that are performed by each economic trader for his/her own account in the framework of his/her activities in the field of production, transformation or achievement, shall not be subject to the provisions of this Ministerial Resolution.

Period of validity of the Commercial Register shall be recorded in a place that is specially set up for the activities of the registries in accordance with the provisions of this Resolution within six months from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.

Upon expiration of this period, the non-conforming Commercial Register shall become invalid. In addition, the competent control authorities request the cancellation of the concerned commercial companies from the commercial registry.

The new procedure comes just days after Trade Ministry announced the abolition of the import licensing system in place since 2016, and the expansion of the list of prohibited products from import to reach 1000 products.

Trade Ministry justified this decision by the government’s desire to reduce imports and maintain exchange reserves, in addition to giving the market to local institutions, by protecting the national product and compensating materials that are prohibited from importation with locally produced products.

General Manager of Foreign Trade in the Ministry, Said Djallab, said in a statement last week, that the list of goods which import is suspended, is a temporary list that can be changed every three or six months, in line with the economic dynamism of the country.

He defended the new procedures, asserting that it came after demands of traders who complained about the impact of these goods on the locally manufactured products.

In terms of figures, the import bill for the first 11 months of 2017 reached $ 42 billion, while it is estimated at $ 46 billion last year, with a profit margin of $ 2.3 billion.