Media Review - September 6, 2018

The sale of agricultural products at a high price, the possibility of raising tariffs for water and other public services, and the change in the essence of the social housing project are the leading topics of today's media.

The newspaper Azerbaijan is investigating the causes of rising prices for agricultural products. The author claims that the country has improved the legislative base for the development of the agrarian system, as well as its financial security, exemption from taxes, except for land tax, soft loans, mineral fertilizers, and etc.

The goal is to create conditions for farmers. The author emphasizes that a lot of work has been done recently in the field of product safety; therefore, in the production of certain products, there is not percentage, but multiple growth.

The article also talks about businessmen who buy goods for cheap, and sell them much more expensively.

The Novoye Vremya newspaper is examining the issue of unprofitability of Azersu JSC. The financial report says Azersu still remains a subsidized organization.

The water losses in it exceed 50% due to the outdated sewage system. State investment in the company, compared with the end of 2016, has increased by 808 million manat. According to the report, part of the funding was received from the state budget - about 526 million manat.

Plus, the investments of international financial organizations, provided with state guarantees, have also increased from 789 million to 1 billion manat.

It is interesting that loans of international financial organizations are not considered to be liabilities of Azersu.

Due to credit resources and public investments, received by the company at least for the last 10 years, it was possible to simply build a new infrastructure.

The website Azadliq.info writes about the social housing project, whose houses are for some reason sold to a wealthy stratum of society. It seems that the essence of the project has changed. The website discusses the topic with the economist Gadir Ibrahimli. He claims that nowhere in the world social housing is sold. This housing in all countries is provided to the poor. As for the social housing ropject in Azerbaijan and the prices of these apartments, they are far from low.