At the Meeting of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee
The Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising had a meeting on 2 March.
Tahir Mirkishili, the committee head, opened the meeting with the announcement of the five items put on the agenda. Once the agenda was approved, he told the colleagues that the Items 1 and 2 consisted in the amendments to the State Duty Law and the amendments to the Licences and Permits Law, in the first reading in either case. Those packages are interrelated substantively and are intended to ensure harmony with the Media Law, according to Mr Mirkishili.
The new Media Law brings a modified classification of TV/broadcasting subjects; so, the said amendments are going to align the corresponding laws with the new classification of the audio-visual media. The operation termed ‘TV translations across Baku City’ is being deleted from the classification list and is being replaced with the wordings ‘a national terrestrial television operator’ and ‘a regional terrestrial television operator’. Mr Mirkishili stressed that whilst the duties, one might say, remained the same, there was one exception – namely, the duty levied on the national terrestrial telecaster is cut tenfold from AZN 50,000 to AZN 5,000, which is another move in the context of the state’s support for the media field.
The MPs endorsed the amendments and recommended they should be tabled before the Milli Majlis at a meeting in plenary.
Next, Tahir Mirkishili proceeded to the 3rd item on the agenda, which was a set of first-reading amendments to the State Property Privatisation Law. Mr Mirkishili gave a laconic overview of the Bill, telling of the spending mechanism for state property privatisation returns. He ceded the floor to the head of the State Property Service of the Ministry of Economy Metin Eynullayev who was the one to describe the Bill.
First, Mr Eynullayev spoke in brief about the work done by his office, about the relevant state priorities, the innovations being rolled out and the transparency arrangements put in place. As regards the amendments contained in the Bill, they pursue the goal of concretising the spending targets and areas set for the legally-defined deductions from state property privatisation returns – those deductions that are transferred to the account of the privatising state authority. Besides, the Bill encompasses the finance of post-privatisation enterprise operation support, preservation and protection of state property and reinforcement of the state property sellers’ logistical bases. According to Mr Eynullayev, the amendments, once enacted, will add to the efficiency of the work done by the appropriate state authority.
After that, the committee looked at the set of amendments to the Anti-Monopoly Activities Law, the Food Products Law and the State Secret Law, all related to the inception of the State Reserves Agency of the Azerbaijan Republic. Also, they discussed the third-reading amendments to the Medical Insurance Law. Both drafts were put on vote and cleared for tabling at a parliamentary plenum.
The deputy chairman of the committee Ali Masimli and the MPs Vahid Ahmadov, Ziyad Samadzade, Vugar Bayramov, Rufat Guliyev, Igbal Mammadov and Aydin Huseynov commented on the agenda items.
The MPs Mashhur Mammadov, Mahir Abbaszade, Anar Mammadov, Agalar Valiyev and Mazahir Efendiyev, the head of the Economic Legislation Department of the Milli Majlis Staff Muhammad Bazigov and others took part in the committee meeting as well.
The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis
