Amendments will be made to 2010 Azerbaijani State Budget

After CESD Recommendations the Government of Azerbaijan decided to make amendments to 2010 State Budget

Government of Azerbaijan (GoA) announced on May, 20, 2010, that amendments to 2010 State Budget will be made, soon in spite of the fact that Ministry of Finance declared last week that no amendments were scheduled.  Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD) declared on May 17, 2010 that amendments on State Budget should be made and the center sorted out impacts of such amendments (for more information about CESD May 17, 2010 Declaration in Azeri, please visit http://www.cesd.az/m60.htm). The Azerbaijani government will make amendments to the Law on State Budget for 2010, when returns after interval in 2009 to practice of correction of the main financial document in the middle of the year.

According to Azerbaijani Minister of Finance of Samir Sharifov, amendments can be injected in June 2010. “There are certain orders of the country’s leadership and therefore we study this issue now. I think that changes in parameters of the state budget are possible as upon working out the state budget for 2010 we held enough conservative position, including in regard to oil price. Reasonable conservatism will be applied in this process,”  S. Sharifov said.

The forecast base for the budget of Azerbaijan of the export oil price was established for 2010 at level of $40 per barrel, but in reality the price did not fall lower than $70.

The budget of Azerbaijan for 2010 was approved with revenue in the amount of AZN 10.015 bn, expenses in the amount of AZN  11.264 bn  and phenomenal limit of deficiency – AZN 1.249 bn or 3.9% of Gross Domestic

Minister of Taxes Fazil Mammadov speaking at a Cabinet meeting devoted to the results of socio-economic development in the first quarter of this year, a surplus budget of Azerbaijan for the first quarter totaled AZN 466.9 mln or 19,1% of the budget revenue .

'During January-March of this year the state budget revenues amounted to AZN 2, 446,000,000 and plan of revenues is carried out by 104%. The expenditure budget amounted to AZN 1,979,100,000,' said Mammadov.

'Total investments in Azerbaijani economy for Jan-March 2010 amounted to  AZN1, 636,800,000. Of these, AZN 1,231,000,000 is domestic investment, including AZN 583,400,000 of the state budget', the minister added .

The minister also added that the banks, insurance and reinsurance companies operating in Azerbaijan  are planning to send AZN 145 mln of the 2009 revenues to increase the authorized capital. 'Amendments have been introduced to legislation to ensure stability of the financial sector. According to these amendments, some of the profits that the banks, insurance (reinsurance) companies send to increase the share capital shall be exempted from income tax,' said Mammadov. The official exchange rate on April 15 is 0.8034 manat/$ 1.