Tax reforms lead to growing number of labor contracts
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Ensuring the transparency and the incentive role of the tax system is a priority of the Tax Ministry of Azerbaijan.
Thanks to the tax reforms, a significant increase in the number of labor contracts has been achieved, Azerbaijani Taxes Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said at a meeting related to the country’s socio-economic sphere.
He noted that in January-June 2019, a total of 101,000 new labor contracts were registered, of which 77,000 were registered in the private non-oil sector.
So, the reforms on preferential taxation bear fruits.
"As many as 150 million manats ($88 million) remained at the disposal of citizens, which were previously paid in taxes," Jabbarov said.
He informed that the Ministry of Taxes fulfilled the indicators of the consolidated budget for the first half of the year and transferred 4.95 billion manats ($2.91 billion) to the state budget.
Of these funds, as many as 3.63 billion manats ($2.14 billion) were taxes and state fees, while the remaining 1.32 billion manats ($776 million) accounted for deductions for compulsory social insurance and unemployment insurance.
Jabbarov pointed out that fulfillment of taxes made up 108.8 percent, social insurance - 112.5 percent, while fulfillment of compulsory unemployment insurance was 116 percent. He expressed confidence that these rates will continue.
Jabbarov also recalled that the State Customs Committee carried out a semi-annual budget forecast of 108 percent.
"This is the result, first of all, of the tax policy, proper administration and ongoing reforms. In addition, it is the result of the fight against the shadow economy," he stressed.
Tax revenues from the non-oil sector accounted for 70.1 percent of the total revenues. For comparison, this figure was 65.8 percent in 2018. Overall, the growth rate of revenues from the non-energy sector was 14.3 percent.
Jabbarov said that this exceeds the growth rate of the relevant sector of the economy, and the ministry has already fulfilled the annual forecast of 51.1 percent.
He further emphasized that the share of the private sector in the non-oil economy of Azerbaijan is very high and makes up 77 percent.
Within the transition to market economy, the role of Azerbaijani tax authorities is continuously growing in implementation of effectual and consistent economic policy and in establishment of stable state budget income. This forms the basis of the socio-economic development of the country.
---
Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz