The Milli Majlis held another plenary meeting on 15 December, opening which the parliament’s Chair Sahiba Gafarova announced that there were 13 items on the agenda.

Once the agenda had been approved, Speaker Gafarova specified the first two items on it as being of a substantial affinity and having been submitted to the Milli Majlis by Mr President. The first item was about the Bill ‘On Renaming the Saghiyan Village in Shamakhi Province of the Azerbaijan Republic as Guneshli’ and the second one, linked to the former, was that of the draft amendments to the ‘List of the Municipalities of the Azerbaijan Republic’ contained in the Law ‘On the Municipal Areas and Lands’. Whilst the first Bill is about renaming, the second one is harmonising in nature. Both Bills were to be put through the first reading, according to Mrs Gafarova.

Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Regional Affairs Siyavush Novruzov briefed the assembly on both Bills. He said that the current name of the village of Saghiyan was completely unrelated to the Azerbaijani ethnos, its heritage and values, history, geography and the everyday life of the local populace. The matter in hand had been discussed with the Toponymy Commission; besides, the opinions of the locals had been polled, with the eventual conclusion being that it would be expedient to rename the village in the southern part of the province as Guneshli.

Consequently, the Saghiyan village in the administrative territory of Shamakhi Province will be renamed as Guneshli and the Saghiyan village administrative area will be known as the Guneshli village administrative area.

As regards the draft amendments to the ‘List of the Municipalities of the Azerbaijan Republic’ contained in the Law ‘On the Municipal Areas and Lands’, the Saghiyan Municipality of Shamakhi Province is being replaced with the Guneshli Municipality of that province, according to Mr Novruzov.

The MPs Tahir Karimli and Aydin Mirzazade commented on the matter during the deliberations. Chairman of the Toponymy Commission under the auspices of the Milli Majlis Isa Habibbayli informed the parliament of the origins of the word ‘Saghiyan’, adding that the renaming of the village as Guneshli would be in line with the specific features of its geographic location.

Both Bills were put on vote and approved separately.

Then, Madame Chair describing the next 10 items on the agenda as having to do with the Bills coming up in the Milli Majlis for the second reading.

First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis and Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Ali Huseynli remarked in connection with the draft amendments (the second reading) to the Labour Code of the Azerbaijan Republic that the MPs had not made comments or offers in regard to the document.

The Bill envisages the deletion from the Code’s Article 950.1 of the provision on the subsidiary responsibility of the banks more than 50% of whose charter capitals (capital portions or share parcels) are controlled by the Azerbaijan Republic or the municipalities to refund their private deposit holders.

The Bill was approved in the second reading.

Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili presented for the second reading the next two items on the agenda – the draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Complete Insurance of Deposits’ and ‘On the Insurance of Deposits’. He also commented on the ideas that the MPs had voiced during the first reading of both documents.

Pursuant to the draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Complete Insurance of Deposits’, the law that has held in effect for 4 years and 9 months now and has had two term extensions already is to remain in force until 5 April 2021.

Meanwhile, the draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Insurance of Deposits’ contemplate the increase in the covered retail deposit compensation from AZN 30,000 to AZN 100,000 (to the equivalent of AZN 1,000 for foreign-currency deposits) effective 5 April 2021. It is also proposed to provide the insurance coverage of the physical persons engaged in unincorporated business enterprising (with the sum of compensation to be set at AZN 20,000). In addition, the insurance of complete physical-person notary deposit account balances is provided for in the Bill.

The committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Razi Nurullayev, Fazail Agamali, Vahid Ahmadov, Mahir Abbaszade, Gudrat Hasanguliyev and Rufat Guliyev commented on the Bills. Then, both documents were put on vote and approved in the second reading.

The MPs were then briefed on the draft amendments (the second reading) to the Labour Code of the Azerbaijan Republic by Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Labour and Social Policy Musa Guliyev. The amendments add to the list of red-letter days contained in Article 105 of the Labour Code the 8^th of November as the Victory Day; it is to be a holiday. As regards the other amendment, it is an addendum – the new Article 106.1 to be included in the Labour Code would read, ‘The 27^th of September of each year is the day of commemoration of the shahids who fell whilst effecting the cause of liberating the lands of the Azerbaijan Republic from the occupation – ‘The Memorial Day in the Azerbaijan Republic’. This day shall be deemed a working day.’

It was mentioned that the proposed amendments to the Labour Code ensued from the presidential decrees ‘On Instituting the Memorial Day in the Azerbaijan Republic (the Decree dated 2 December 2020) and ‘On Instituting the Victory Day in the Azerbaijan Republic’ (the Decree dated 3 December 2020).

The Bill was approved in the second reading.

Next, Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Sciences and Education Bakhtiyar Aliyev tabled the draft amendments to the laws ‘On Education’, ‘On Physical Education and Sports’, ‘On Vocational Education’ and ‘On Basic Education’ (all in the second reading). According to Mr Aliyev, no addenda or proposals had been put forth with regards to either Bill during the first reading.

The amendments to the Law ‘On Education’ are technical in nature and are drawn up to concretise the terminology employed in the law; besides, they envisage implementation of electronic data systems in the issues of state education documents.

As for the amendments to the laws ‘On Physical Education and Sports’, ‘On Vocational Education’ and ‘On Basic Education’, they, as Mr Aliyev clarified, aimed to streamline the legislation in the concerned areas and to have the state documents of professional and basic education generated with the aid of the ‘Centralised Education Information System.’

MP Rauf Aliyev commented on the amendments. Then, both Bills were approved in the second reading one by one.

The draft amendments (the second reading) to the Customs and Tax codes of the Azerbaijan Republic were introduced by Aydin Huseynov, a member of the Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising. He told the participants of the meeting that both documents were intended to ensure economic activity and transparency and that neither comments nor proposals had been submitted to the committee following their first reading.

Apart from having the customs authorities levy the road tax on the motor-vehicles registered abroad entering the customs territory of the country right on the border, the amendments to the Customs and Tax codes would also contribute importantly to accelerating goods turnovers and minimising time expenditures by enabling foreign trade operators’ goods and transport vehicles cross customs boundaries promptly.

Both Bills were approved in the second reading one after another.

The other two agenda items dealt with the draft amendments to the ‘Milli Majlis Internal Charter’, which Charter was enacted subject to the Law No 74-IQ dated 17 May 1996, and to the Law ‘On the Committees of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic’. Both drafts were submitted for the second reading by First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis and Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Ali Huseynli who remarked that their common goal was to create a legislative framework for the continued operation of the Parliament in the videoconferencing mode.

The amendments in question are concerned with the sittings of the Milli Majlis and the meetings of its committees and commissions to be conducted online as real-time video conferences for a certain amount of time in view of the quarantine regime introduction and the sanitary and epidemiological and other similar measures undertaken in the country.

The two Bills were put on vote and approved in the second reading separately.

Chairman of the Parliament’s Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili briefed the MPs on the next item, namely, the first reading of the draft amendments to the Law ‘On Accountancy’ of the Azerbaijan Republic. Mr Mirkishili explained that the goal of the Bill was to make the accountancy and financial reporting by commercial enterprises run smoothly.

The document envisages the one and the same legal regime for the accountancy and financial reporting by medium and large enterprises as well as it does small enterprises keeping their accounts in compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards for the SME.

The Bill was approved in the first reading after the ideas that MP Razi Nurullayev had about it had been heard.

And thus came the closure of the meeting of the Milli Majlis

.The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis