Media review for May 26, 2020

The probability of confiscation of property  bought with  dirty money abroad, the high cost of tourism, the volume of the country's shadow economy are the topics of today's media.

The site “Oxu.az” writes that property acquired abroad with dirty money will be taken from their owners. MP Fazil Agamaly claims that it is proposed to supplement  the Article 521 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (enforcement of judgments of foreign courts). In the new version, the title of this article is “execution of a judicial or other final decision on confiscation of property abroad”.) Article 521.1 defines the procedure for confiscation of property located abroad. According to the supplement, the decision must be executed within five days after its adoption. The deputy believes that it is necessary to investigate the issue of the availability of real estate of a number of citizens of the country abroad. If the bill is adopted, it will enter into force on July 1.

The site “Yenisabah.az” writes about rising prices in the tourism sector. The quarantine regime is expected to be lifted from June 1, but border opening is not yet planned. Even when opening borders, people are unlikely to travel actively. The need for domestic tourism will increase, which can dramatically affect prices. In addition, there will be no interest in large hotels, there will be interest in private houses in districts and in summer cottages on Absheron.

The site “Sfera.az” writes that the pandemic revealed the presence of a still large volume of the shadow economy. Illegal activity takes place in many areas, many workers do not have official salaries, so the state was unable to provide material assistance to private entrepreneurs. The share of the shadow economy in Azerbaijan is still large. The ratio of the shadow economy to GDP is at the level of 30-40%. If we take into account that in Azerbaijan the GDP is at the level of 80 billion manats, then the shadow part is about 24-32 billion manats.