Azernews.Az

The shadow economy share in Azerbaijan's GDP is 9.1 percent, Rauf Salimov, the deputy chairman of the State Statistics Committee, wrote in an article published in the Statistika xeberleri scientific journal.

"The share of the shadow economy in the industry is 1.1 percent of GDP, agriculture - 0.5 percent, construction - 1.3 percent, the vehicle repair and trade - 2.1 percent, transport and warehousing - 0.4 percent, tourist accommodation and catering - 0.4 percent, social and other services - 3.3 percent," he wrote.

He wrote that while submitting the statistics reports and declarations to the state agencies, the entrepreneurs distort the data in some cases.

"According to the observations, the distortion in the statistics reports and declarations, submitted by the enterprises and organizations, is often observed in the fields of construction, processing industry, trade, transport and storage facility, tourist accommodation and catering, social and other services," he wrote.

For comparison, the share of shadow economy in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland does not exceed one per cent of GDP.

Salimov wrote that the data is usually distorted in six of ten reports submitted by the entrepreneurs to the tax, statistics and other state agencies.

Such situation often occurs in small enterprises in seven of ten cases (with up to 20 employees).

"On average, the companies’ actual revenues are underestimated by 29.1 percent, the expenditure for salary - by 23.8 percent, the expenditure for raw materials are overestimated by 14.5 percent, payments for services - by 16.1 percent, other expenses – 6.3 percent," Salimov said.

According to the observations, the revenues in trade are mainly underestimated by 44.4 percent.

"The revenues in the manufacturing sector are by 25.8 percent less than the actual ones, transport and warehousing - by 33.8 percent, tourist accommodation and catering - 29.4 percent, social and other services - by 22.3 percent," he wrote.

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