What is necessary to fight the shadow economy?

Baku / 12.10.18 / Turan: The Chamber of Control over Financial Markets of Azerbaijan has not justified the hopes placed on it for improving the efficiency of this sector, said financial expert Samir Aliyev in an interview with the program "Cətin sual" ("Difficult Question.")

Commenting on the recent structural changes in the Chamber and the abolition of the Supervisory Board, he recalled that the Chamber was created to regulate the situation in the financial and banking sector. An international corporate governance mechanism was introduced there. However, later the charter was amended to expand the powers of the Board. As a result, a dual power appeared, which led to a decrease in the efficiency of the chamber.

The activities of the Chamber over the past period were remembered by the closure of several banks and the revocation of licenses from a number of credit institutions. The Chamber applied more stringent requirements than the CBA.

There were strict restrictions on cash payments, an additional 1% simplified tax was applied. These measures have led to the restriction of banks, creating problems for their normal activities. On the other hand, the securities market was not created in Azerbaijan. It's no secret that there is a large amount of shadow economy in the country. Despite the creation of the Financial Monitoring Service and other steps, there are no significant results in the fight against money laundering. The media and international organizations often write about the high level of the shadow economy, secret remittances, and so on. However, there is no official reaction to this. Reporting should be enhanced in this area, the expert said. On the one hand, control over the activities of banks should be increased, on the other - these structures should disclose their data. To combat the shadow economy, it is necessary to develop a system of non-cash payments. At the same time, it is necessary to achieve an increase in transparency in the real sector, the expert believes. -03d06--