Azerbaijani Parliament Passes New Insurance Activities Bill
Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. I.Alizadeh / Some limits for establishing foreign companies have been removed after the passing of the new 'Insurance activities' bill by the Azerbaijani Parliament.
The bill on 'Insurance activities' was adopted by Milli Majlis (Azerbaijani Parliament) on 9 October.
In compliance with the bill adopted in 1999, foreign citizens and firms may only receive 49 % of the authorized capital of insurance companies in Azerbaijan. The new bill eliminates this limit. Ziyad Samadzadeh, the chairman of the permanent Parliamentary commission on economic policy, said taxes in the insurance sector made up 0.51% in 2006. The volume of income from taxes made up $3,000 or $5,000 per head in some developed countries.
The insurance sector is behind in development in Azerbaijan. The current insurance bills do not meet standards existing in some international and developed countries.
There are 29 insurance companies in Azerbaijan. The total volume of authorized capital of these insurance companies amounts to AZN 53mln. Eight of the companies were established by foreigners with AZN 4.5mln authorized capital. The new 'Insurance activities' bill consists of 15 chapters and 120 items. The new bill has120 more items compared to the previous one.
