Subsidies cut by 30 million manat

The session of the National Commission on agricultural subsidies under the chairmanship of Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Ilham Guliyev,  held on July 24, decided to allocate 26 million 43.7 thousand manat cash grant for  about 203,000 producers of crops. This is by  31.3 million manat less than last year.

Subsidies are provided for the use of fuel and motor oil at the rate of 40 manat for each hectare of land cultivated. This year the Commission has allocated funds for 651 092.8 hectares. Materials for three regions (Absheron, Mingachevir, and Shusha)  have been sent for  a retrial.

Grants are paid  since 2007, after increasing prices for fuel and lubricants. President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly demanded from the government to improve the subsidy mechanism, as there are negative aspects in this process.  The  new Minister of Agriculture,  a former head of the Audit Chamber, Heydar Asadov, started revision of  issued subsidies, and  serious shortcomings and financial embezzlement at the local commissions were revealed. Suffice to say that in 2013 the Republican Commission allocated subsidies for 393.700 subjects for cultivation 1,435,100 hectares of land.

This year, agricultural subsidies from the state budget of Azerbaijan are  provided at the level of 131 million manat. Of this amount, subsidies are also provided for the production of wheat and rice (40 AZN per ha), as well as traders of fertilizers (50% of the cost). --08D--