Opening the scheduled plenary sitting of the Milli Majlis on 18 December, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova announced that its agenda had contained 16 items.

The committee chairmen Zahid Oruj, Musa Guliyev, Tahir Rzayev and Siyavush Novruzov, and the MPs Malahat Ibrahimghizi, Tahir Karimli, Razi Nurullayev and Sabir Rustamkhanli talked about the current developments and important issues of the country after the agenda of the plenary sitting had been approved.

The deliberations followed.   

First, MP Nizami Safarov of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building tabled for the third reading the draft amendments to the Civil Code. He remarked that there had been no textual changes in them following the previous readings. 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 put on vote and approved in the third reading.  

Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili presented the third reading of the next two agenda items, namely, the draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Complete Insurance of Deposits’ and ‘On the Insurance of Deposits’. Mr Mirkishili commented on the ideas that the MPs had voiced during the previous readings 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, had expired the last time on 4 December 2020 and is now to be extended till 5 April 2021. 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.

Both Bills were put on vote and approved in the third reading one after another.

It was Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Labour and Social Policy Musa Guliyev who briefed the MPs on the third reading of the amendments to the Labour Code. Mr Guliyev told them that the amendments would 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.’ According to Mr Guliyev, the amendments followed 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 put on vote and approved in the third reading.

Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Sciences and Education Bakhtiyar Aliyev tabled the third readings of the draft amendments to the laws ‘On Education’, ‘On Physical Education and Sports’, ‘On Vocational Education’ and ‘On Basic Education’. 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. No remarks or offers were brought forth at the previous readings of either documents.

Both Bills were put on vote and approved in the third reading one by one.

The third readings of the draft amendments to the Customs and Tax codes of the Azerbaijan Republic were put forth by MP Aydin Huseynov of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising. He said that both documents were intended to ensure economic activity and transparency. Apart from allowing the customs authorities levy the road tax on motor-vehicles registered abroad on the border as they are entering the customs territory of our country, the amendments would also enable the customs clearance in situ. Thanks to that, the modifications in both Codes would make an important contribution accelerating goods turnovers and minimising time expenditures by enabling foreign trade operators’ goods and transport vehicles cross customs boundaries promptly.

Neither comments nor proposals had been submitted to the committee following the previous readings, according to the MP.

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

While tabling the third reading of 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’, the First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis and Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Ali Huseynli remarked that they were meant to create a legislative framework for the continued operation of the Parliament in the videoconferencing mode. They 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 in effect in the country.

The documents were put on vote and approved in the third reading individually.

Next were the draft amendments to the Administrative Offences Code of the Azerbaijan Republic. MP Nizami Safarov who tabled the document explained that it had been drawn up for the avoidance of a repetition of the massive coronavirus infection cases that had taken place over the recent months because of the violations of the sanitation, hygienic and quarantine regulations that were intended to keep the spread of the epidemic in check. The draft points at the insufficiency of the fines stipulated in Article 211 of the Code. It also contemplates sterner penalties for administrative offences, a more serious approach to the restrictions in place, stringent corporate controlling measures and more efficient efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis Fazayil Ibrahimli, Committee Chairman Musa Guliyev and the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Razi Nurullayev, Sahib Aliyev and Tahir Karimli commented on the proposed amendments.

The Bill was approved subsequently.

Then, Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili briefed the assembly of the amendments to the Tax Code and mentioned the compulsory medical insurance the implementation of which began in the country on 1 January 2020. Pursuant to the Law ‘On the Medical Insurance’, the services covered by the compulsory medical insurance are to be financed from the compulsory medical insurance fund. The services provided at the expense of the compulsory medical fund are exempted from the VAT for one year starting on 1 January 2020 in support of this insurance facility and in order to ensure the complete use of the medical insurance takings to cover the relevant services. As for the draft coming up before the MPs, it would extend the VAT exemption period by another year whilst it also contains certain adjustments and specifying changes.

MP Rashad Mahmudov had expressed his ideas about the Bill before it was put on vote and approved.

That was followed by the draft amendments to the Law No 1559-VQD dated 9 April 2019 ‘On Amending the Tax Code of the Azerbaijan Republic’ and the Law No 1560-VQD of the same date as above ‘On Amending the Customs Tariff Law of the Azerbaijan Republic’. MP Mahir Abbaszade of the parliament’s Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising who tabled the drafts mentioned that the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Executive Committee had decided in 2019 that the final match of the UEFA Europa League would be played at the Baku Olympic Stadium. Besides, our country was supposed to host matches of the UEFA European Championship 2020. However, the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus around the world had not only impacted the public, political, social and economic fields but had also brought about the suspension of all the major sporting events. Therefore, it is now proposed to hold the said UEFA European Championship 2020 football matches in Baku next year – hence the idea to extend the effective periods of the aforementioned laws by another year, to wit, till 1 August 2021. At the same time, there were to be exemptions from the income tax, profit tax, value-added tax, and the excise duties where applicable and, last but not least, from the customs duties in connection with the final match of the UEFA Europa League 2019 which, too, should take place in the Azerbaijan Republic and with the games of the UEFA European Championship 2020.

The Bill was put on vote and approved.

The draft amendments to the Law ‘On Mediation’ were presented by MP Nizami Safarov who quoted Article 39 of it as saying that parties involved in economic, household and labour disputes are to resort to mediation sessions prior to bringing their matters up in courts of law effective 1 January 2021. Mr Safarov pointed out that the Board of the Mediation Council had taken steps towards the use and efficiency of the mediation. The non-commercial legal entity ‘The Mediation Council’ was incepted and registered by the Ministry of Justice on 12 February 2020. There were dispute resolution training sessions at the Justice Academy. The Board of the Mediation Council added the Justice Academy its member responsible for the mediation training and applications from people wishing to become mediators began to be collected pursuant to the ‘Mediator Training and Qualification Enhancement Procedure’ approved with a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers.

According to Mr Safarov, though the first training had been scheduled to take place on 10 March this year, it had to be postponed due to the special quarantine introduced in the country due to the pandemic. Mediation in household, labour and commercial disputes requires at least 300 trained mediators whilst no more than 15 persons are legally permitted to take part in any given mediation session. Now, it had proven impossible to set up a mediation system that would satisfy those requirements as well as the provisions of the Law ‘On Mediation’ by 1 January 2020, the MP remarked, adding that it was proposed to replace the wording ‘with the effect from 1 January 2021’ with the wording ‘with the effect from 1 July 2021’ in the law in question therefore.

The MPs Razi Nurullayev and Etibar Aliyev shared their views on the document and made several new proposals.

Then, the document was put on vote and approved.

Next, Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili tabled for the second reading the draft amendments to the Accountancy Law. Mr Mirkishili said that the amendments had been devised to streamline the provisions of the law concerned with the accountancy and financial reporting by commercial enterprises. It is planned to create a common accountancy and financial reporting regime for small, medium and large enterprises. In addition, the reporting by small and medium enterprises would conform to the International Financial Reporting Standards. Mr Mirkishili clarified that no textual changes had been made in the document since its first reading.

MP Vugar Bayramov remarked that the document would be key to maintaining the transparency of business enterprises; he also put forth a number of proposals.

The Bill was approved in the second reading.

The MPs proceeded to the first reading of the draft amendments to the Customs Authority Service Charter approved by the law No 768-IQ dated 7 December 1999. The member of the Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Mahir Abbaszade who was briefing the assembly on the document said that because the service in the Customs was a special kind of the Civil Service and because certain provisions concerning the Civil Service also applied to the Customs Service, it was motioned to introduce the amendments to strengthen the social protection of the customs personnel. Those amendments encompass bonuses to officers and pecuniary compensations to office holders on their departure from the Customs Service.

Chairman of the Committee for Regional Affairs Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Razi Nurullayev and Erkin Gadirli asked questions during the deliberations. Chairman of the Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili and member of the same Committee Mahir Abbaszade shed light on the issues that had interested the MPs.

Then, the Bill was put on vote and approved in the first reading.

The sitting of the Milli Majlis was over at that.

The Public Relations and Press Department
The Milli Majlis