Azerbaijan to improve targeting of budget spending for 2016
By Nigar Orujova
In order to improve the targeting of Azerbaijan’s budget spending, the planned volume of expenditures under the category ‘other expenses’, were reduced by 350 million manats, or 20.3 percent, compared to 2015, the country’s Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said.
The statement was made at the plenary session of the parliament during a discussion on the draft state budget for 2016-2019 on October 13.
The minister said 5.364 billion manats (33 percent) of budget expenditures will be used for financing concrete projects, which is one of the main conditions of improving the targeting.
Sharifov noted that the revenues of Azerbaijan’s consolidated budget are forecasted to reach 16.72 billion manats, while its expenditures are expected to stand at 19.907 billion manats in 2016.
“The revenues and expenditures of Azerbaijan’s State Social Protection Fund included in the consolidated budget will stay at the level of 3.079 billion manats, of which 35.7 percent (1.1 billion manats) will account for transfers from the state budget,” said Sharifov.
Furthermore, the finance minister said that the budget expenditures of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan for 2016 are expected to be 8.2 billion manats, or 33.4 percent (4.105 billion manats) less than in 2015.
He noted that 2.2 billion manats will be allocated from SOFAZ in 2016 for financing the projects of national importance and the remaining 6 billion manats will be transferred to the state budget.
The budget expenditures of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic are forecasted to reach 351 million manats, of which 19.6 percent (69 million manats) will come from autonomous republic’s own revenues, while 80.4 percent (282 million manats) will be from state budget subsidies, according to Sharifov.
He said that according to forecasts, the revenues of Azerbaijan’s state budget will reach 14.566 billion manats (25.2 percent of GDP), while its expenditures will stand at 16.264 billion manats (28.2 percent) in 2016.
The budget deficit is expected at 1.698 billion manats or 2.9 percent of GDP in 2016, according to the finance minister.
Azerbaijan's economy maintains its stability
Despite negative processes occurring in the world, Azerbaijan’s economy has maintained its stability, said Speaker of the Parliament Ogtay Asadov during the discussions.
The state budget of Azerbaijan is distinguished in the current year as well, he said.
A great amount of attention was paid to maintaining the defensive might of Azerbaijan and safety issues in 2015, and sufficient funds were allocated in this regard, said Asadov.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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