Webinar – CNSS: helping companies survive

A new webinar and the same keen interest in the theme proposed. The event on 2 December, held on the theme “CNSS: new support measures for companies”, was attended by a large number of companies and professionals working in various sectors. Moderated by Christophe de Figueiredo, President of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Morocco, the virtual meeting featured Omar Souabni, Director of the Network Division at the CNSS. “These webinars are a continuation of the debates initiated by the CCSM, whose aim is to provide concrete answers to the questions of the Chamber’s members and partners regarding the management of the current crisis”, explained Christophe de Figueiredo in his introduction to the event.

The CNSS’s main measures

As part of the implementation of the decisions of the Economic Watch Committee (CVE), in September the CNSS granted a full waiver of late-payment surcharges (penalties and collection costs relating to amounts owed for periods up to and including June 2020) for companies whose sectors of activity have been affected by Covid-19. Another decision adopted last July: a partial waiver of late-payment surcharges relating to amounts owed for the 2016 and earlier financial years.

In line with its paperless management of relations with its members, the CNSS has set up a new online space, www.damancom.ma/recouvrement. “The aim of this action is to allow the companies concerned to benefit from one of the waivers for which they are eligible. This space also allows companies to settle the amounts they owe remotely, either in full or through payment facilities”, explained Omar Souabni, Director of the Network Division at the CNSS.

Since the portal went live on 9 October, 8,500 companies have used it to apply for the waiver measures and to pay the amounts they owe (situation as at 2 December 2020).

Also as part of the move to paperless services, electronic salary declaration and payment of contributions have become mandatory. “Decree 2.19.718 of 3 March 2020 provided for the gradual roll-out of online declaration and online payment from September 2020, according to the average number of employees declared between March 2019 and February 2020”, Omar Souabni was keen to point out.

To explain what this process involves, the CNSS has scheduled communication actions. In particular, seminars have been organised at central and regional level with the various professional bodies.

The mega-project of extending social protection to all

While the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance and urgency of putting concrete social measures in place, the public authorities are compelled to implement, from 2021, the royal guidelines set out in King Mohammed VI’s speech of 29 July 2020 on the occasion of Throne Day.

A year that will be marked by the launch of a large-scale social reform concerning the gradual extension of social protection to all. An important step, reinforced by the royal will to extend Compulsory Health Insurance (AMO) to all Moroccans by the end of 2022, in addition to extending pensions to the working population and the job loss allowance (IPE) to Moroccans in regular employment.

The road travelled by the CNSS has been long and full of obstacles, but also of concrete achievements. Morocco needs to equip itself with such institutions, capable of acting to guarantee a little more social equity in order to face all kinds of change.