The Competition Council has just delivered its opinion on the bill amending Law 15-95 of the Commercial Code and enacting new provisions relating to payment deadlines. Back to its main recommendations.
Seized by the Head of Government to issue its opinion on Bill 69.21 amending and supplementing Law 15.95 forming the Commercial Code and enacting specific provisions relating to payment deadlines, the Competition Council issued this Tuesday, April 5 its opinion on this text put in place to solve the problem of payment deadlines.
The great novelty of this text lies in the introduction of a system of pecuniary sanctions against companies exceeding the legal payment deadlines.
In concrete terms, the text proposes to introduce a pecuniary fine set at 3% for the first month of late payment increased by 1% per month or fraction of a month of additional late payment, applicable to the amount of invoices denominated in dirhams, the amount excluding VAT is greater than 10,000 dirhams, not paid within the regulatory deadlines or paid after the deadline.
The analysis carried out by the Competition Council has thus made it possible to issue a favorable opinion on the bill on condition that the wording of the paragraphs of Articles 1, 2 and 3 is reviewed, so as to make its application more effective and in phase with the rules of free competition.
The recommendations are thus articulated around six points, starting with the scope of the bill that the Council suggests to remove and keep open to all invoices, whatever their amounts instead of the threshold of 10,000 dirhams currently fixed.
On the declaration system, the Conseil de la concurrence recommends reviewing the frequency of filing declarations of invoices and reducing it from one year to one quarter and introducing a global declaration of both invoices received and invoices issued.
With regard to the sanctions regime, the institution headed by Ahmed Rahhou recommends the introduction of a sanction mechanism proportionate to the amounts of the invoices and the size of the companies, particularly for cases of non-declaration, late declaration and incomplete or insufficient declaration.
There is also talk of excluding disputed invoices from the scope of the fine, given that “it is not appropriate to settle an invoice, which is the subject of a disagreement between the issuing company and that of the addressee”.
On the system of derogations, the Competition Council recommends reintroducing the prior approval by decree after consulting the Competition Council, of professional derogation agreements as stipulated by the old law n ° 49.15 and to provide a clear and precise framework defining the conditions for granting exemptions from payment of pecuniary fines.
With regard to safeguarding the rights of creditors and so that creditor companies can assert their rights, in particular for the request relating to compensation for late payment, the Conseil de la concurrence recommends returning to these creditors part of the information in their giving the possibility of obtaining proof from the tax authorities, such as a certificate of non-payment, each time a fine is issued.
With regard to the procedure for purchasing public establishments and enterprises (EEP), the Council recommends on the one hand, to implement and generalize the GID system (integrated expenditure management platform, editor’s note) to all public establishments of an administrative nature, while inviting the EEP acting in the sectors merchants to digitize all of their purchasing procedures.
On the other hand, the Competition Council also recommends changing the public procurement regulations applicable to EEPs, in particular those operating in competitive markets, by giving them the possibility of having their own purchasing regulations adapted to the specificities of their activities and their purchasing operations. This regulation will thus allow these public companies to control the traceability of the exact dates of receipt, invoicing and payment.