The amendments and addenda introduced to Azerbaijan’s 2010 budget will increase the reliance of the country’s main financial document on oil revenues, an Azerbaijani economist says.

Vugar Bayramov, who heads the Center for Economic and Social Development, told AssA-Irada that the initial version of the state budget envisioned a 4.9 billion manat ($6.125 billion) transfer from the State Oil Fund (SOFAR), which holds Azerbaijan’s revenues from crude exports. However, with the approval of the latest changes, an additional 1bn manats ($1.25bn) will be transferred from the Fund.

“This means that over half of the budgetary revenues will be made up of Oil Fund transfers. Thus, the latest changes will further increase the budget’s dependence on the Oil Fund,” Bayramov concluded.

The Milli Majlis (parliament) approved amendments to the country’s state budget Friday, raising revenues in 2010 by 15%, or 1.490bn manats ($1.862bn), while expenses were raised 9%, or by 1.011bn manats ($1.263bn). 1bn manats of the extra revenues will be contributed by SOFAR, while 490 million manats will come from the Ministry of Taxes. Thus, revenues of the state budget will amount to about 11.505bn manats ($14.381bn), while budgetary expenses stand at 12.275bn manats ($15.343bn). The budget deficit decreased by almost $600m to $962m. The oil price was raised to $60 a barrel from the previous level of $45