The Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising had a meeting on 22 November at which its Deputy Chairman Ali Masimli said as he was presenting the agenda that the latter focused on the second-reading bills in the 2023 Budgetary Parcel.

Those were the draft 2023 State Budget and the 2023 budgets of the State Social Protection Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund as well as the next-year living wage and criterion of neediness laws and sets of amendments to the Tax and Customs Codes and the State Duty, Budgetary System and Cashless Settlements Laws.

Mr Masimli reminded the meeting participants that the packaged bills had been discussed extensively at committee meetings and parliamentary plena, and that Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov had supplied them with detailed enough coverage of the whole set. Stressing the very positive attitude to the largest state budget in the history of our country, Ali Masimli mentioned several legislative amendments on the agenda.

Deputy Minister of Finance Azer Bayramov told the committee members that the 2023 State Budget would ensure sufficient finances to fulfil the state obligations as well as to maintain economic stability and ensure continued growth. Mr Bayramov clarified some matters of the process that legislators had raised during the earlier debates and commented on their proposals.

The price per 1 bbl of crude oil put in the State Budget’s draft is the lowest of the projections by international finance institutions whereas crude oil’s share of the gross domestic product and budgetary revenues is constantly on decline, Deputy Minister was saying. Budget amendments are proposed to reflect the increased planned spending on opening new embassies and diplomatic representations and other issues; these changes are in line with legislation, Mr. Bayramov said.

Next up, First Deputy Minister of Economy Elnur Aliyev told the MPs of the favourable country reviews by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The 2023 State Budget is wrought in keeping with the Azerbaijan-2030 National Socio-Economic Development Priorities, so it will emphasise maintaining the equilibrium and furthering sustained development.

First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Rashad Orujov spoke of investments in provinces and generation of financial opportunities. He underlined the pressing need in finance institutions using guarantee mechanism instruments more actively.

Deputy Head of the State Tax Service Samira Musayeva talked about the amendments to the Tax Code. She said that the social insurance subsidising in the de-occupied territories was under close scrutiny by the State.

Deliberations followed. Opinions and suggestions came from the MPs Vahid Ahmadov, Ziyad Samadzade, Vugar Bayramov, Mahir Abbaszade, Aydin Huseynov, Rufat Guliyev and Mazahir Efendiyev as well a department head from the State Customs Committee Mirgasim Vahabov.

The MPs recommended that the Bills should be brought before the House at a meeting in plenary.

Deputy Chairman of the committee then turned to the remaining four items on the agenda – the first-reading Bills.

There were amendments to the Civil, Civil Procedure, Tax and Criminal Procedure Laws as well as to the Currency Regime, Anti-Terrorism, Notary, State Duty, Banks, State Real Estate Register, Mortgage and Investment Funds laws. All the amendments are unifying in nature, according to Ali Masimli.

As regards the amendments to the Migration Code and the Alat Free Economic Zone Law, that Bill is to establish a legal framework to regulate the entry visas issuance for activities in the free economic zone, as well as aspects of entry and temporary stay in the territory of Azerbaijan of overseas nationals and stateless persons arriving for this purpose.

The committee members suggested that those Bills, too, should go up for consideration at a plenum of the Milli Majlis.

The other participants of the committee meeting included MP Igbal Mammadov, Mashhur Mammadov and Anar Mammadov as well as Deputy Minister for Social Protection of the Population Anar Karimov.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis