Amendments to the budget system will affect municipalities

Yesterday the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed an amendment to the law on the budget system and ordered the mechanism of their implementation. According to innovation, from January 1, 2015 will be banned cash transactions with local governments on taxes and fees. From the New Year, local taxes will be paid through banks through «Azerpoct» (national postal operator) and other mechanisms of non-cash payments. In this case, to obtain information about debt on tax and other levies to municipalities is given 5 days - such a term reserved for a response to a specific request of the user.

Changes were made and the issuance of grants to municipalities. Now grant will be calculated on the number of residents in the municipality of people, their share in shaping the country's financial resources, income and expenditure of the municipality. There are additional factors - the location of the municipality in the frontal or the border area or highland areas, the standard of living of the local population, the expected socio-economic projects and others.

Part of the changes touched the requirements to receive subsidies from the state budget to local social, environmental, general economic and other programs. To this end, municipalities and the national associations instituted by them must submit the appropriate application to the authorized body of executive power until March 15 of the previous fiscal year. They will be considered within 30 days. In the case of receiving an application for subsidy, until May 1, the feasibility study for the respective project should be carried out and submitted to the authorized body of executive power. Report on the use of subventions shall be provided by the municipality up to 15 February of the following budget year.

According to the chairman of the Center for Economic Research (CER) Ghalib Togrul, changes will be reflected on the local government did not previously 2016. Positive is the specifics of conditions and purposes of state in the form of subsidies, he said. --17D-