MP prposes privatization of housing sector
By Amina Nazarli
Municipalities can be issued not only grants-in-aid but also
subsidies in some cases.
Azerbaijan MP Arif Ragimzade voiced such a proposal on December 2
during the discussion of the state budget draft and the concept of
socio-economic development for 2017 and the next three years.
The discussions of the budget package are being held for the third
day. Friday's discussions included representatives of the
parliamentary committee on human rights, regional issues, youth and
sports, international relations and interparliamentary relations,
legal policy and state-building.
Rahimzade said that such a proposal was voiced back in 2014. "This
issue should have been reflected in the law on the state budget,
but we have seen this neither in 2015 nor in subsequent years,” he
added.
MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev, for his part, suggested privatization of the housing sector.
He said that some 304 million manats ($173 million), which is going to be allocated for the financing of this sector in 2017, is quite heavy expenses. "I do not understand why we have privatized this sector yet?" asked Hasanguliyev.
In turn, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said that privatization of the housing sector is possible. However, he believes that the costs provided for housing and utilities sector for 2017 in the state budget, is not so big considering the fact that these funds are distributed throughout the country.
"Some 40 percent of the expenditure falls on salaries of the
employees of this sector. These funds are also used to finance work
on cleaning of streets, improvement work in some regions,
irrigation of green spaces and so on," said the minister.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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