MOROCCO Law and Practice Contributed by: Loris Marghieri, Dounia El Aissaoui, Julien Nouchi and Mounia Larhrissi, Gide Loyrette Nouel
3.10 Taxes on Loans Loans granted by Moroccan licensed banks and loans granted by a direct shareholder to its sub - sidiary are exempted from registration duties, but other loans (eg, those granted by foreign banks not licensed in Morocco) are subject to 1.5% registration duties (calculated on the prin - cipal amount of the loan). 4. Planning and Zoning 4.1 Legislative and Governmental Controls Applicable to Strategic Planning and Zoning Law No 12-90 on urban planning sets out the general rules applicable to strategic planning and zoning. Urban Development Master Plans and zoning plans are used to establish strategic plans and zoning schemes. Each municipality prepares development plans, which categorise the land into distinct use zones and assign a different building density ratio to each zone. 4.2 Legislative and Governmental Controls Applicable to Design, Appearance and Method of Construction In practice, public law regulates a landowner’s ability to build a new building or refurbish an existing one through an administrative authori - sation that must be obtained prior to beginning any construction work. 4.3 Regulatory Authorities Overall responsibility for regulating the develop - ment and designated use of individual parcels of real estate lies largely with local authorities, including the urban agencies and the Region - al Investment Centres responsible for issuing building permits.
4.4 Obtaining Entitlements to Develop a New Project A variety of authorisations and permits are nec - essary for the construction of a real estate pro - ject: • Law No 12-03 relating to environmental impact assessment sets out a list of projects which must be subject to an environmental impact assessment and an environmental acceptability decision from the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Environment in order to be authorised. • Law No 49-17 on environmental assessment was recently published in the Official Gazette and will take effect once its implementation regulations are issued. It requires all pro - jects with potential environmental impacts to undergo an environmental impact assess - ment. For projects existing before the law’s enforcement without prior assessments, an environmental evaluation will be conducted. • Regarding construction of hazardous facili - ties, authorisation must be obtained from the relevant authorities (or a declaration has to be filed, depending on the nature/class of the facilities) prior to beginning construction work. • A building permit must be obtained in order to carry out construction work. Generally speak - ing, the permit is issued once all the authori - sations and visas required by specific laws and regulations have been obtained. • After completing permitted construction, the architect must declare it, and the owner must obtain either a permit to inhabit for residential buildings or a compliance certificate for non- residential buildings. These permits confirm compliance with the initial building permit and are required before the building can be used. • Repair works on existing buildings do not require a building permit but do require a
712 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook