Gov’t eyes offering discounts for doing business in regions
By Aynur Karimova
The government has proposed to provide a 50-percent discount while issuing licenses to entrepreneurs, who will carry out their business activities in the regions of Azerbaijan.
The government told Trend that the relevant amendments to the law "On state duty" have already been submitted to the Parliament.
The amendments also envisage a 50-percent discount to additions to licenses, which allow implementing business activity in other fields or providing new services that are not specified in the license.
Under the amendments, a 50-percent discount will not cover the licenses for the regional television and radio broadcasting. Also, the discount will not be applied to entrepreneurs, who carry out their activities both in Baku and the regions of the country.
"Furthermore, if the entrepreneur applies for a license for several subspecies [for example, for sale, import and manufacture of any product], it will only pay for one license, the cost of which is higher than other two," the government reported.
Currently, the cost of the state duty varies between 220 manats ($141)-11,000 manats ($7,069) depending on the type of activity. No state duty is required for the reissuance or recovery of the license.
Vahid Ahmadov, the member of the Parliamentary committee for economics, believes that these changes will have a positive impact on the development of Azerbaijan's regions.
"There are very serious problems in obtaining these licenses, many of which are bureaucratic obstacles. But none of these problems exist in the ASAN service centers. Currently, certain licenses are issued by ASAN service centers. These problems will be eliminated gradually," he told AzerNews on December 28.
The government of Azerbaijan is keen on developing the entrepreneurship activities throughout the country. In this regard, a presidential decree issued on December 21 canceled 22 types of licenses, and narrowed a list of the licenses required for doing business in Azerbaijan from 59 to 37.
Also, in early October, licensing procedures for entrepreneurship were simplified, paving the way for encouraging business transparency in the country. Moreover, the number of inspections among entrepreneurs was also reduced for two years.
All these measures are aimed at fighting corruption and bribery.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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