Tunisia - The Prime Ministry on Saturday published the social measures included in the 2025 finance bill, which will come into force in January 2025.

Measures aimed at consolidating the State's social components

The most important measures aimed at consolidating the State's social components are the exemption of recipients of disability and orphan's pensions from income tax and resource levies, and the exemption of salaried and self-employed female agricultural workers from income tax for a period of 10 years.

These measures also include the creation of a social protection fund for female agricultural workers to guarantee them insurance against accidents at work and occupational illnesses, as well as a second fund to insure against loss of employment.

The Prime Ministry also announced the creation of an insurance account for victims of road accidents, which will pay compensation to beneficiaries or to the insurance institution up to the amounts paid out in compliance with the conditions laid down for its beneficiaries.

The measures further comprise the launch of a TND 10 million funding line for young entrepreneurs, covering the sectors of industry, handicrafts, trade, non-commercial services and digital and creative services such as content creation, media and journalism.

Self-financed, interest-free loans, repayable over a maximum period of eight years, will be granted to people benefiting from economic inclusion and job creation, according to the decree relating to the Fidaa foundation.

Measures to boost the social and economic integration of people with disabilities

With regard to social measures to boost the socio-economic integration of people with disabilities, a TND 5 million funding line will be allocated from the National Employment Fund's resources to people with disabilities for the granting of interest-free loans not exceeding TND 10,000 per loan to finance economic activities.

The tax system for vehicles specially adapted for people with disabilities will be revised by extending the tax privilege for commercial vehicles to passenger vehicles and authorising the spouse, ascendant or descendant to drive a passenger vehicle in the event of total disability of the person with disability, with effect from the beginning of April 2025.

For public institutions providing support for children, the elderly and people with disabilities, there will be total exemption from import duties and taxes on equipment and materials that have no similar local manufacture and that are necessary for their activity, in addition to continued funding for micro-projects to support economic integration through the Social Amen programme.

Tax measures to improve citizens' purchasing power

Among the tax measures aimed at improving the citizen's purchasing power and building the capacity of economic enterprises is the revision of the income tax scale. This will include the categories of public and private sector employees, public and private sector pensioners, farmers and self-employed professionals of all kinds, with the exception of those subject to the flat-rate system and the auto-entrepreneur system.

Over 80% of pensioners will enjoy an increase in their retirement pension thanks to the cut in income tax.

This tax cut, together with the increase in pensions, will also affect 60% of people with a net monthly income of some TND 3,000, while 38% of people will retain their total exemption from income tax.

A number of measures have been taken to help the poor and low-income groups, including a monthly allowance for children aged between 6 and 18 from needy and low-income families, and a rise in the value of the monthly allowance to TND 260 per family.

Measures targeting poor and low-income groups

Poor and low-income families whose monthly electricity consumption does not exceed 300 kW or 600 kW per bill will benefit from a reduction in the rate of value-added tax on household electricity consumption from 13% to 7%.

Furthermore, a TND 20 million funding line will be set up from the resources of the National Employment Fund for vulnerable and low-income categories to grant interest-free loans of up to TND 10,000 per loan, as well as a cut in electricity and gas bills of up to 5% for the 93% of subscribers to the electricity network.

University scholarships and loans will be granted, including a university integration scholarship for children from low- and middle-income families. There will also be an increase in the back-to-school grant for pupils from poor and low-income families covered by the Amen social programme, and celiac patients from needy and low-income families will receive a monthly grant of TND 30 per person.

A subsidy of TND 70 a month per child will also be offered as part of the support programme for women, children and the elderly, as well as free road transport, various short-term aids and funding for micro-projects.

Measures for pensioners and those receiving hardship pensions

Measures for pensioners and low-income earners in the public and private sectors include a 7.5% increase in pensions for private-sector pensioners receiving disability pensions under the scheme for compensation for injuries due to accidents at work and occupational illnesses, and recipients of old-age allowances in the public sector, with a 7% rise paid as the first instalment in July 2024 with retroactive effect from May 2024.

The value of low retirement pensions will also be raised to TND 260, knowing that the value of low retirement pensions was raised from TND 180 to TND 240 from July 2024.

The third instalment of the salary increase will be paid to civil service and public sector pensioners at a rate of 5% of gross salary. The first instalment was paid in January 2023 with exceptional retroactive effect from October 2022, and the second instalment in January 2024.

With regard to the measures intended for workers in the private and public sectors, the guaranteed inter-professional minimum wage (SMIG) in the non-agricultural sectors will be raised by 7.5%, given that the minimum wage for a 48-hour working week will be TND 528.320 and for a 40-hour working week will be TND 448.238, knowing that a 7% rise was paid as the first instalment with retroactive effect from May 2024.

Finally a 7.5% increase in the minimum wage in the agricultural sectors will be applied, where the daily minimum wage for agricultural workers will be TND 20,320, for specialised farmers it will be TND 21,404, and for skilled agricultural workers it will be TND 22,358.

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