The discussion of the Budgetary Envelope in the second reading was continued at the plenary sitting of 24 November presided over by the Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova and attended by members of the Government.

First, the relations about the agenda items were heard. Then, the assembly were let know the conclusions of the other parliamentary committees that had discussed the enveloped Bills.

Chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili introduced the 4^th item on the agenda – the second reading of the Bill ‘On the Living Wage in the Azerbaijan Republic in 2022’. Tahir Mirkishili indicated that it was proposed to raise the living wage from AZN 196 to AZN 210: AZN 207 to AZN 220 for the workable population, AZN 162 to AZN 176 for the pensioners and AZN 175 to AZN 193 for children.

MP Etibar Aliyev made known his opinion about the Bill and several proposals regarding it during the deliberations that followed. Then, the 2022 Living Wage Bill was voted through the second reading.

 Next, Chairman of the parliamentary Labour and Social Protection Committee Musa Guliyev tabled the second reading of the Bill ‘On the Need Criterion in the Azerbaijan Republic in 2022’, saying that it was proposed to set the next-year criterion at AZN 200, which would be  of 17.6% or AZN 30 higher than 170 this year.

The assembled approved the Bill in the second reading on hearing Mr Guliyev.

As he was describing the nature of the next Envelope Bill, Chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili explained that the purpose of the proposed second-reading amendments to the Tax Code was to streamline the fiscal legislation. The remarks that the MPs had made during the first reading had been considered together with the concerned government agencies and, for the most part, been taken into account in the text of the draft law that is edited accordingly, according to Mr Mirkishili.

The detailed overview of the amendments was followed by the deliberations. The MPs Eldar Guliyev and Siyavush Novruzov shared their considerations, after which the Tax Code amendments were put on vote and approved in the second reading.

The draft amendments (in the second reading) to the Code of Administrative Offences were tabled by First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis/Chairman of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Ali Huseynli. According to Mr Huseynli, the next ten items on the agenda were intended to align the legislation with the said amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences; it is about administrative liability being aligned with the amended Code.

The MPs voted for the adoption of the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences in the second reading subsequently.

Then, Tahir Mirkishili told the House of the Bill ‘On the Local (Municipal) Taxes and Fees’. The deliberations that began then saw the MPs Razi Nurullayev, Siyavush Novruzov, Kamran Bayramov, Fazil Mustafa and Hikmat Mammadov express their opinions and make their suggestions. Ali Huseynli responded to those, whereafter the Bill was passed in the second reading.

Ali Huseynli, again, also tabled the next agenda item – the set of draft amendments to the Bill ‘On Barristers and the Bar Practice’, which, he said, concretised the bar practice taxation. The MPs had taken the document favourably at the first reading, Mr Huseynli mentioned.

That Bill was approved in the second reading after the House had heard what MP Bahrouz Maharramov had to say.

The committee chairmen Musa Guliyev, Ali Huseynli and Tahir Mirkishili went on to table the draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Social Insurance’, ‘On Execution’, ‘On the State Registration and the State Register of Legal Persons’ and ‘On State Procurement’. All the drafts were put on vote and endorsed in the second reading one by one.

Tahir Mirkishili said, whilst tabling the draft amendments to the Law ‘On Cashless Settlements’, that it was intended to add five new paragraphs to its Article 3.4 and that the first-reading commentary by MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev had been considered duly as the relevant edits in the Bill showed.

The House voted that Bill through the second reading, too.

Further, MP Sabir Rustamkhanli spoke his mind about the Bill containing amendments to the ‘State Duty’ Law, after which the amendments were endorsed in the second reading.

Chairman of the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committee Sadig Gurbanov then tabled the parcel of amendments to the Water, Customs, City-Planning and Building codes of the Azerbaijan Republic and the laws ‘On Mineral Resources’, ‘On Fishing’, ‘On the Animal World’, ‘On Environmental Protection’, ‘On Huntsmanship’, ‘On the Real Estate Register’, ‘On Veterinary’, ‘On Medications’, ‘On Physical Education and Sports’, ‘On Culture’, ‘On Maintaining Measurement Traceability’ and ‘On Licences and Permits’.

That package was voted for in the second reading eventually.

Next up, First Vice-Speaker Ali Huseynli presented to the House the amendments to the Law ‘On the Status of the Member of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic’, saying that that draft and the five Bills more following it according to the agenda were all concerned with insurance matters. Essentially, they are about adjusting the compulsory state personal insurance of MPs, military personnel and law enforcement personnel, judges and diplomats.

The voting that followed indicated the lawmakers’ favourable attitude of the amendments to the Law ‘On the Status of the Member of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic’ – they were approved in the second reading.

It was Chairman of the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee Ziyafet Asgarov who provided an overview of the amendments to the Law ‘On the Compulsory State Personal Insurance of the Military Personnel’, saying that their main goal was to continue strengthening the social protection of the servicemen.

That set of amendments, too, was voted through the second reading.

In addition, the MPs voted in the second-reading amendments to the ‘On the Compulsory State Personal Insurance of the Court and Law Enforcement Authority Personnel’ and ‘On the Insurance Practice’ as well as the draft amendments to the Service Charter of the State Customs Organs, approved with the law No 141-IIQ dated 12 June 2001.  

Eventually, Deputy Chair of the International Relations and Inter-Parliamentary Connexions Committee Sevinj Fataliyeva informed the Milli Majlis about the draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Compulsory State Personal Insurance of the Persons Serving with the Diplomatic Missions of the Azerbaijan Republic in Other Countries and at the International Organisations’.

During the deliberations, Chairman of the Regional Affairs Committee Siyavush Novruzov talked about the importance of diplomats’ personal insurance, about the tremendous duties befalling them after the end of the 44-day Patriotic War and about the need in prompt actions in defence of the national interests of Azerbaijan abroad as well as maintaining close interaction between the diplomatic corps and the members of the Milli Majlis.

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova responded by saying that the Parliament and the FM were keeping in touch regularly and were doing a most serious kind of work in close co-operation.

An exchange of opinions followed about the Bill presented by Mrs Fataliyeva, which was voted through the second reading subsequently.

Sahiba Gafarova mentioned the exhaustive information supplied at the first readings of the 2022 expenses budgets of the Milli Majlis and of the Chamber of Accounts of the Azerbaijan Republic, both on today’s agenda. Those two would be voted upon together with the 2022 State Budget Bill at the next parliamentary sitting, Mrs Gafarova added.

That was the end of the deliberations on the second-reading Bills on the agenda of that sitting of the Milli Majlis. 

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis