Press Review 07/23/2016

The official Azerbaijan newspaper published an article on the role of President Ilham Aliyev in the development of the Olympic movement in Azerbaijan. The growth of the Olympic activity, the author notes, began in 1997. That year, the then vice-president of SOCAR Ilham Aliyev became President of the National Olympic Committee. Azerbaijani athletes take part in Olympic competitions. The country started to construct Olympic sport centers, and sport was attached special importance.

Azadlig discusses the state of affairs in the tax system with an expert Nemat Aliyev.

The expansion of the tax base and the presence of a large tax potential was reported at a meeting with representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce by the Minister of Taxes Fazil Mammadov.

However, such a statement is fraught with the fact that a new wave of extortion will face businesses, which is associated with problems in the budget, said the expert.

Institutions and companies cannot carry out activities as before. Even the Oil Fund cannot provide receipts to the state budget; so the government starts talking about the expansion of the tax base - the increase in tax rates and in the range of those involved in tax payment. The ministry should start increase in the tax base from itself, the expert said.

Novoye Vremya has published an article entitled "The banking crisis is amplified." It says that a few months ago, the international rating agencies Fitch and Moody`s expected deterioration of the situation in the banking system of Azerbaijan, if the state did not help the banks.

But, apparently, the country's financial regulator and the Financial Markets Control House see a reform of the banking sector only in reducing the number of banks.

In any case, a real improvement in the banking system can be achieved only if the country successfully implements economic reforms. But to date, officials have only spoken about them.

Yeni Musavat discusses the planned changes to the Constitution with the former Prime Minister Panah Huseynov. According to him, the establishment of Vice-Presidency is a mechanism for transferring someone big powers. He also believes that the creation of the posts of Vice-Presidents can aim painless old-age retirement of government officials. Panah Huseyn also believes that the main purpose of the referendum is to speed up the holding of presidential elections scheduled for 2018 due to the political and social situation in the world and the region.