Azernews.Az

By Vusala Abbasova

The insurance companies operating in Azerbaijan have collected premiums worth 312.84 million manats over January-August 2015.

This figure is 10.4 percent more than the same period of last year, according to Orhan Bayramov, the head of the Association of Insurers of Azerbaijan.

The companies have paid out over 116.16 million manats over the reported period, which is 12.2 percent more compared to the same period of 2014.

The insurance premiums amounted to 37.1 manats pay per each gathered 100 manats, for comparison, this index amounted to 31 manats over the same period of the previous year.

Bayramov believes that the volume of the insurance charges will achieve 500 million manats up to the end of the current year. This means 16.5 percent growth as compare with 2014, when the figure amounted to 429.2 million manats.

A total of 26 insurance and one reinsurance company are operating in Azerbaijan. The country has 824 insurance agents, 61 of which are legal entities, while the remaining 763 are individual persons.

The Taxes Ministry recently announced that insurance intermediaries should pay a 20 percent income tax, as the activities of insurance intermediaries are considered entrepreneurial, just like the activities of insurance and reinsurance companies.

Insurance and reinsurance companies, as well as insurance agents and brokers, are exempt from value added taxes (VAT).

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