The Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising held its first meeting in the 2021 spring session in the videoconferencing mode on 29 January.

Committee Chairman Tahir Mirkishili congratulated the MPs on the start of the parliamentary session and wished them every success in their work.

It was then mentioned that the agenda of the meeting included the report about the work that the Committee had done during the 2020 autumn session, the work plan for the current spring session and draft amendments to a number of laws.

In Mr Mirkishili’s opinion, the spring parliamentary session that is going to unfold against the background of the economic reforms afoot in the country will prove fruitful. Besides, the coronavirus vaccination started already will have the pandemic under control and will make it possible to accelerate the economic growth in the country.

The year 2020 was crucial for our country because it was during it that our Army led by the triumphant Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev liberated the previously captured lands of the country. The Azerbaijani State overcame all the difficulties with distinction. The Victory was achieved. In addition, the World Bank announced Azerbaijan the most reformatory state in the world last year.

Talking about the work that the Committee carried out during the autumn session of 2020 then, Mr Mirkishili mentioned the 16 committee meetings and the 67 issues addressed at them, including the 65 Bills that were discussed duly. Amongst them were draft amendments to the Tax Code and to the laws ‘On Business Enterprising’, ‘On the Civil Service’, ‘On the Unemployment Insurance’, ‘On the 2020 State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic’, ‘On the Complete Insurance of Deposits’, ‘On the Insurance of Deposits’ and ‘On Accountancy’. In addition, the parliamentary Committee worked on the Bill lifting the Nominal Financial Unit Law and several other drafts.

Also during the session, there were extensive discussions of the Bills ‘On the 2021 State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic, ‘On the 2021 Budget of the Unemployment Insurance Fund’, ‘On the Living Wage in the Azerbaijan Republic in 2021’ and ‘On the Assessed Needs Criterion’ and, in addition, the draft laws to the Budgetary System Law. Governmental officials as well as representatives of NGOs and public associations took part in the committee meetings letting their opinions and proposals be known unfailingly.

The Committee received 47 appeals, complaints and requests from citizens during the past session; 36 of them were forwarded for action-taking to concerned authorities and 9 were adopted for processing.

Having said all that, Mr Mirkishili presented the 2021 spring session work plan of the Committee to the meeting participants, saying that the Bills submitted as the corresponding legislative initiatives would be considered during the session. Amongst them will be the Pawn Shops Bill and the Tourism Bill, to mention but two. There will also be the Bill ‘On the execution of the 2020 State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic’ and the 2020 performance report by the Chamber of Accounts.

It is planned to put together working groups and arrange their work, meet with the concerned authorities, business operators and representatives of non-governmental organisations, and hold public hearings pursuant to the verdict of the Plenum of the Constitution Court on the appropriate interpretation of several provisions of the Civil and Tax Codes as well as of the Mortgage Law and the Law on Enforcement.

Deputy Committee Chairman Ali Masimli and the MPs Aydin Huseynov, Mahir Abbaszade, Ziyad Samadzade, Elnur Allahverdiyev and Vugar Bayramov stated their thoughts about the 2020 autumn session performance report and the 2021 spring session work plan of the Committee. They also put forward a number of relevant proposals.

Next, Mr Mirkishili informed the assembly of the draft amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Law, saying that the e-services associated with the appointment of the unemployment insurance payments were rendered through the centralised electronic data system of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population as it was. The proposed amendments are designed to eliminate the very subject of citizen-government official interaction in the course of the assignment as well as to make the submission of various documents by both the insurers and the insured redundant.

After that, the Committee Chairman progressed to the draft amendments to the State Duty Law, which, he pointed out, was meant to make the citizens of the country more satisfied with the notary services. It is planned to reduce the duty to AZN 1.5 in order to accelerate document flows and not to charge service fees for notary-related services in a number of instances.

The Committee members found the draft amendments to both the Unemployment Insurance Law and the State Duty Law to be important and recommended that both packages should be tabled for deliberations at a plenary sitting of the Milli Majlis.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis