Import duties on e-cigarettes are expected to rise from 2.5% to 40% next year. The measure is very badly received by traders.
โWe are in shock. This will have a big impact on the future of electronic cigarettes. The future is uncertain for electronic cigarettes in Morocco. Economically, it will be very hard. Many will leave a lot of feathers there. The electronic cigarette will surely become a luxury product for some people, not for everyone,โ an electronic cigarette seller in the Maรขrif district of Casablanca told H24 Info. If the measure is applied, it will increase the current selling price of electronic cigarettes by 300 dirhams, she said.
The Finance Committee in the House of Representatives on Wednesday adopted an amendment to the finance bill (PLF-2023) providing for this increase in import duties for electronic cigarettes from 2.5 to 40%. Traders are not sure how to resist this โhuge increaseโ. “We don’t know if it will be applied to hardware, resistors, liquids… We are waiting for the beginning of January to see what will happen, but I think it’s the end,” says a manager of E -vape.
For another trader, “it’s the coup de grace”. โI think that the consumer will follow with difficulty. They have not increased in the same way for cigarettes. If they wanted to save Moroccans, they would also have increased them by 40%, because the level of health risk is incomparable. All studies show that electronic cigarettes are 95 to 98% less harmful than conventional cigarettes. Some mutuals in Europe even reimburse it,โ he explains.
Reda Mhasni, psychologist and addiction specialist, considers it “exaggerated” to consider the electronic cigarette as a “therapeutic solution”. “In my humble opinion, the electronic cigarette is still an addiction”, underlines the specialist who estimates that this measure of the increase in import duties “will absolutely not reduce the consumption” of cigarettes by citizens, especially young people. And to conclude: “The State must support the citizen caught in the meshes of addiction with solutions to get out of it, and not take his money”.