E-audit project completes in Azerbaijan
By Nigar Orujova
As of preliminary results, application of the electronic audit in the oil, bank and trade spheres allowed to reduce by 1.5 times human resources and time, spent for one checking, through implementing computer assisted analysis of tax evasion risks, Azerbaijani Taxes Minister Fazil Mammadov said.
Mammadov was speaking at a presentation held in connection with the accomplishment of the Twinning project "Support to the Ministry of Taxes of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the field of Computer Assisted Audit system".
E-audit twinning project with the budget of 1,000,000 euro started in March 2011 with partnership of the Netherlands Taxes and Customs Administration to support the Azerbaijani Taxes Ministry in developing a modern tax system in compliance with general EU and international practice.
According to Mammadov, this once more shows that work held in the e-audit sphere should be continued and expanded.
Representatives of Azerbaijani public bodies, the European Union, the United Nations, the World Bank and other organizations attended the ceremony.
Project management teams from both sides presented initial results of the project.
Head of the EU Azerbaijani Representation, Ambassador Roland Kobia and Ambassador of the Netherlands to Azerbaijan Aryen Uyterlinde addressed the event.
Kobia said application of e-audit in Azerbaijan will improve tax
administration and simplify the submission of e-statements.
The application of new system will also prevent the tax evasions
and support increase of budget receipts and transparency, he
noted.
After the presentation Kobia said the project reflects successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU in different spheres.
Mammadov, in return, said implementation of the e-audit will benefit both regulatory body and entrepreneurs.
"Under the project, the relevant legislation has been improved and some 13 amendments were included in it," Mammadov said.
The use of e-audit makes possible to detect the risks of tax evasion with a 90-95 percent probability. In order to facilitate the study of software for electronic audit, tax auditors have developed new (SW) ACL-Mentor software.
Moreover, together with the German company DATEV a new interface was created, which is easy to use and meets the objectives of e-audit.
E-audit is intended to protect the rights of taxpayers, its application requires an automated information system, and the system, which the Taxes Ministry possesses, has all the capabilities for e-audit.
The use of electronic audit system may allow a 90 percent cut in the number of field audits.