Opening the meeting of the Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising on 24 May, Committee Chairman Tahir Mirkishili announced the three items put on the agenda.

Item one, Mr Mirkishili said, was the Bill (the first reading) ‘On the Utilisation of the State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic in 2020’. A relevant report is submitted for consideration of the Committee while the Bill is arrived as accompanied with the relevant opinion statement by the Chamber of Accounts.

It was further noted that the 2020 State Budget revenues had exceeded the corresponding projections by 2.3% while the expenditures had fallen 3.9% short of the planned amount. As he spoke about the factors having influenced that, the Committee Chairman remarked that 2020 was to remain in the popular memory as a year of the victory that the Azerbaijani Army had won under the leadership of the victorious Commander-in-Chief and President Ilham Aliyev. Last year, Mr Mirkishili said, Azerbaijan had celebrated victories on three fronts whilst fighting the pandemic, the global economic crisis and the Armenian invaders simultaneously. The promptitude with which the State Budget’s execution went, financial discipline and the rational use of economic resources made a contribution of their own to each of those three victories.

Tahir Mirkishili also spoke of the deft preventive arrangements by the State in the face of the then current challenges, the economic relief programmes, the funds that had been spent on protection of the economy and the population, and the achievements that had been made during 2020. Though the pre-emptive action could not avert the softening of economy, growth was secured in several sectors, as a matter of fact. The upheavals of agriculture, non-oil industries, information technologies and transport laid a firm foundation for the eventual progress of Azerbaijan.

Mr Mirkishili’s speech was followed by the thorough presentation by Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov about the utilisation of last year’s State Budget. Mr Sharifov began by characterising the macroeconomic situation in which the utilisation had gone on: he mentioned the fact that the adverse impact of the pandemic on the national economies the world over had continued in 2020 leading to the qualitative as well as quantitative slowdowns.

And yet, our country was able to keep the macroeconomic stability and respond to all the challenges of the period adequately notwithstanding the pandemic, the 44-day-lon war, the global prices, the oil price slump and the abrupt drop in oil demand. That proved feasible thanks to the far-sighted course and hurtling steps of President Ilham Aliyev that had had their part to play in the economic realm as they had had in the other areas. Our country proved resilient to the shocks of last year, avoided a deep economic recession, maintained the manat stable and, on top of that, achieved progress in several areas – all due to the prompt arrangements put in place, the Minister emphasised.

Mr Sharifov also provided the detailed information about the volume and applications of the State Budget’s expenditures against the pandemic.

Deputy Minister for Economy Sevinj Hasanova told the assembly of the macroeconomic situation and the state budgetary policy targeting the maintenance of stability in the reported period. Besides, she told them of the adjustments in the budgetary parameters, in the budgetary-fiscal policy and in the Budget’s revenue and spending items. Mrs Hasanova went further to inform the meeting participants of the implementation of the support and relief programmes having aimed to mitigate the impact of the crisis that had continued in the accounting period and about also of the role assigned to the anti-crisis measures.

Next, Chairman of the Chamber of Accounts of the Azerbaijan Republic Vugar Gulmammadov tabled the Chamber’s opinion statement regarding the execution of the 2020 State Budget. He also shared his thoughts about the compliance of the Bill ‘On the Utilisation of the State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic in 2020’ and the accompanying report with the effective legislative requirements, the assessed correctness and completeness of the budgetary parameters, the executed budgetary parameters’ conformity with the approved indicators and the timely transfers of budgetary funds to the Treasury Account.

The Chamber of Accounts officials Gulnar Hajiyeva and Tamerlan Yusifzade then gave a thorough presentation of the analytical work that the Chamber had done on the execution of the State Budget.

Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Ali Masimli and the Committee members Ziyad Samadzade, Vahid Ahmadov, Vugar Bayramov, Mahir Abbaszade, Rufat Guliyev and Aydin Huseynov commented on the 2020 State Budget revenues and expenditures, praised the Budget’s execution and recommended that the relevant report should be tabled for consideration at a Milli Majlis plenum.

Then, the Committee Chairman introduced the participants of the meeting to the draft amendments to the Law ‘On Credit Unions’ and the draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences. They are, in the main, about establishing a procedure for a credit union to submit borrower data to a credit bureau and to the Centralised Credit Register alike, and in instituting the administrative liability for breaching the procedure, Mr Mirkishili explained. The MPs recommended that both drafts should be presented for the first reading at a plenary sitting of the Milli Majlis.

The other members of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Elnur Allahverdiyev, Mashhur Mammadov, Mazahir Efendiyev, Agalar Valiyev, Anar Mammadov and Igbal Mammadov were taking part in the meeting, too. Amongst the invited attendants were Deputy Minister of Finance Azer Bayramov, Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of Accounts Nasir Sadigov, a department head from the State Customs Committee Mirgasim Vahabov, Deputy Head of the State Tax Service Ilkin Valiyev and other officials.

The Press and Public Relations
Department The Milli Majlis