Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan may extend the tax benefits for agricultural producers for another five years, head of the parliamentary Committee on Agrarian Policy Eldar Ibrahimov said on October 29.

The parliamentary committee discussed amendments to the law "On issuance of tax benefits to agricultural producers" and recommended it for discussion at the plenary session of Milli Majlis.

According to the draft amendments, individuals and legal entities engaged in agricultural production including industrial output will be exempt of all taxes except the land tax for five years.

Tax benefits for agricultural producers have been applied since 2001.

According to Shahmardan Karimov, Deputy Head of the Milli Majlis Agrarian Legislation Department, the tax benefits applied in Azerbaijan have allowed agricultural producers to save a total of 1.4 billion manats.

Since the benefits were made available agricultural production in the country has increased from 1.2 billion to 4.8 billion manats.

Karimov said that in particular, industries such as poultry farming as well as the construction of greenhouses and processing enterprises have been developing. Azerbaijan is not an importer of poultry meat anymore, fully meeting its domestic demand.

In the past ten years the agricultural sector has been in the spotlight as a priority sector of the economy. Azerbaijan has ensured the allocation of subsidies for fuel and motor oils, grain and rice sowings, production of seeds and sale of fertilizers to stimulate the farmer activity and reduce production costs.

Furthermore, the country has started leasing agricultural machinery to farmers under preferential terms. These measures are being expanded.

In the mentioned period the amount of funds allocated for melioration has increased 7.3-fold, while investment in this field allocated from all sources has increased by about 48 times.

The above-mentioned measures have increased the level of the country's self-sufficiency with foodstuffs. Currently a large part of goods is produced domestically. The production capacity and variety of dairy and meet products, canned fruit and vegetables as well as juices offered to the markets has increased thanks to the enterprises opened in recent years.

As a result of measures conducted in Azerbaijan in the past ten years to strengthen the country's food security the production of crops has increased by 3.1 times, while that of cattle-breeding goods 3.4 times, meat 1.6 times, poultry meat (by industrial means) 4.6 times, eggs 1.8 times, milk 1.5 times and grain 1.4 times.

In the next stage it is planned to continue state support for the agricultural producers. In particular, the priorities include improving the allocation of subsidies, stimulating intensive methods in agriculture, improving the insurance mechanism, encouraging production of environmentally clean agricultural goods as well as establishing large businesses based on high technologies.

Furthermore, Azerbaijan will pay special attention to the production and processing of agricultural goods. In particular, comprehensive measures aimed at improvement of production capacities of the existing agro-processing enterprises by applying high technologies as well as establishment of new enterprises in this sector are envisioned.