BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6
Trend:
The amount of funds envisaged for transferring from the state budget to the State Social Protection Fund under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population to execute state obligations on the financing of pensions was determined at 903 million manat ($531.1 million), while only 848 million manat ($498.8 million) was used, the Ministry told Trend.
The Fund's expenditures increased by 24 percent or 453 million manat ($266.4 million) from January through June 2020, the amount of transfers decreased by 6 percent or 55 million manat ($32.3 million) against the forecast.
In general, thanks to achieved financial savings through optimization of expenditures in the field of social protection, effective management, transparency and avoidance of unreasonable costs, the fund was able to reduce its dependence on budget revenues, said the report.
“In 2020, the specific ratio of the Fund's income to the funds allocated from the budget, having decreased by 13 percent compared to 2017, is forecasted to be 25 percent. This is the main indicator of decreasing dependence of the Fund on the state budget and strengthening financial stability,” noted the report.
“The transfer of the procedure for assigning pensions to an electronic format, the cancellation of unreasonably issued pensions, the strengthening of administrative control measures and ensuring transparency made it possible to save 26 million manat ($15.2 million) in 2018, 104 million manat ($61.1 million) in 2019, and 55 million manat ($32.3 million) on pension costs in the first half of 2020. Applying indexation indicators, the total amount of savings on pension expenditures made up 238 million manat ($140 million),” the ministry added.
(1 USD = 1.7 manat on Aug. 6)