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NBG: Azerbaijan"s budget is not transparent and is not effective
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The news agency Turan
The news agency Turan

NBG: Azerbaijan"s budget is not transparent and is not effective

State budget of Azerbaijan continues to be dependent on the oil sector, the investment costs are not transparent, and are questionable from the point of view of economic efficiency. These are the conclusions of authors of the NGO coalition "National Budget Group" (NBG), which was presented at today's round table at the Park Inn under the "Your Money - Your Future", implemented jointly with the British organization Oxfam, with financial support from the EU.

The experts also criticized the procedure for approval of the report on the execution of the state budget in 2012 in Parliament without discussion document.
 
Expert  of  Social and Economic Development Center Rashad Hasanov drew attention to the fact that, despite in 2012 the GDP was 54 billion manat, instead of the forecasted growth by 5.7 per cent,  the increase was only 2.2 percent. This is mainly due to the drop in oil production in the country.
 
In the structure of budget revenues, which totaled 17.3 billion manat, the share of transfers from the Oil Fund was 57.3 percent, the Ministry of Taxes - 34.9 percent, Customs House – seven  percent, and  one percent - other sources.
 
According to experts, the steady annual growth of transfers from the Oil Fund  negatively  affect the overall economic situation of the country and reduce the responsibility of large taxpayers and the government. For example, the Azerbaijan State Railway instead of forecasted AZN 9.9 million transferred to the state budget taxes only 1.9 million manat, by five times smaller.
 
The head of the Social and Economic Development Center, Muhammad Talibli, noted that according to the American organization of the International Budget Partnership, on the index of budget transparency Azerbaijan ranks  58th  among 100 countries. This means that Azerbaijan budget documents are only partially open to the public. Therefore, the government must do much more to fiscal transparency. According to Talibli, the state budget investment costs which grow every year are sharply criticized. For example, for the construction of roads Hajigabul-Kurdamir, AZN 41 million have been allocated, but nothing is reported about the length of roads, the estimated cost of the project works.
 
On the background of large allocations in the transport sector  there is  low level of investment in agriculture, less than  one percent; though 39 percent of the population are involved in agriculture.  Taking into account that  Azerbaijan  in the future will be a member of the WTO is now necessary to take measures for financial protectionism of agriculture  so that it has stood the competition in the future.
 
The expert also pointed to the great  high cost  for the contest "Eurovision".
Thus, despite the fact that officially  for 10 activities associated with the "Eurovision"
74.5 million manta were allocated, however indirectly, in general, 458.6 million or more than 590 million dollars  were spent on the projects.
 
Social orientation of the budget is also reducing, said Talibli. In Azerbaijan, quarter of the cost
the state budget  were spent on social sector. In this regard, Azerbaijan is behind its neighbors Kazakhstan and Georgia, where the allocations to the social sector reached almost 40 percent and a third of total budget expenditures.
 
 Experts offered a number of recommendations, in particular, the limitation of transfers from the Oil Fund, the legalization of the shady economy, the elimination of monopolies, the competitive landscape, holding a protectionist tax policies for the business, increase of public investment in the agricultural sector, etc.
 
Last year, the state budget revenues amounted to 17 billion 281 million 521.57 million manat, expenses - 17 billion 416 million 452.99 thousand manat, deficit 134 AZN 931.421 million (or 0.3% of GDP.) -06C-

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