Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 22 /Trend, K.Zarbaliyeva/
Late payment of tax debts by population in Azerbaijan negatively affects the budget of municipalities, head of the center for municipalities at the Justice Ministry Mehdi Salimzade told Trend.
According to him, the main source of revenue for municipalities is the taxes and fees and late payment creates serious problems in the activities of municipalities.
Ministry spokesman said that one of the main problems of municipalities is the lack of clear definition of their property and boundaries of territories. Addressing this issue may contribute to the work within the provisions on the conduct of municipal public register and issuance of certificates to them. "
"The uncertainty of the boundaries of some areas controlled by municipalities, and the emergence of problems with the property after the merger of municipalities led to popular discontent. I suppose that the adoption of these provisions will play an important role in protecting the property rights of municipalities and in solving territorial problems," he stressed.
Salimzade considers it important to unify municipalities, since this process has yielded positive results in the world practice.
Due to the fact that municipalities do not have long experience and the process of unification is new for them, the problems arising in this way are understandable, he said.
"These problems need to be regulated. To this end, the center for municipalities has given the new recommendations to municipalities on the organization of work and has conducted a series of seminars. The seminars and consultations informed the chairmen of municipalities that in any form it is necessary to organize work. We have not received complaints about the difficulties encountered in the work," said Salimzade.
Salimzade noted that Azerbaijan will continue unification of weak municipalities.
After the establishment of Institute of Local Self-Government, 2,667 municipalities were opened in Azerbaijan. In 2008 their number reached 2,757. As a result of measures to unify municipalities, the number of local governments declined from 2,757 to 1,718, which resulted in liquidating 1,044 and creating five new municipalities.