Azernews.Az

By Sara Israfilbayova

The Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan has recommended to submit to the Parliament [Milli Majlis] a bill stipulating amendments to the 2017-state budget, the Chamber announced on June 22.

At a meeting held on June 21, the Chamber also discussed reports on the use of budget funds by the Youth and Sports Ministry of and the Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund.

The Law on 2017 State Budget projects the state budget revenues for the year at 16.255 billion manats [$9.537billion] and expenses at 16.9 billion manats [$9.91 billion].

The upper limit of the budget deficit is expected at the level of 645 million manats (1.05% of the GDP) in 2017. The budget for 2017 predicted $40 oil, $10 less the average price in the first months of the year.

The Parliament’s Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship held a meeting on the bill "On Amendments to the State Budget for 2017" on June 22.

MP Vahid Ahmadov, addressing the meeting, stressed that the state budget revenues are expected to be higher by 511 million manats ($300.2 million) and expenses by about 1 billion manats ($587.5 million).

“Some 135 million manats ($79.3 million) will be added to the state budget through the Ministry of Taxes. Moreover, 76 million manats ($44.6 million) are planned to be attracted through off-budget revenues. It is also planned to attract additional funds through the State Customs Committee. The profit of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) will also be included in the state budget.

As for the expenses, it is planned to allocate a certain amount to SOCAR and the Deposit Insurance Fund. In addition, due to the emission of eurobonds of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the upper limit of the external public debt will be increased to 4.5 billion manats ($2.6 billion). The state will allocate 4 billion manats ($2.3 billion) for restructuring of the country's external debts. Thus, the deficit of the state budget will be about 1.2 billion manats ($70.5 million), which is 1.8 percent of GDP," Ahmadov noted.

Ahmadov added that the base price for oil will not be changed.

The Parliament will hold extraordinary meeting on June 30 to discuss the state budget.

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