Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend U.Ismaylova / The Finance Minister of Azerbaijan, Samir Sharifov, said on 27 September that in 2008 the Government of Azerbaijan will not decrease the tax rates.
Earlier the Taxes Ministry of Azerbaijan made a proposal to decrease rates of VAT from 18% to 17-17.5%. However, during the discussions on 2008 State budget, the Government decided to keep the current rates.
According to the Minister, possibly in 2008 certain changes will take place for the level of the profit, for which 14% profit tax rate is applied (currently two rates, 14% and 35%, are applied in the Republic).
"There are proposals to increase level of profit involved in the tax," he said.
According to Sharifov, in 2008 certain measures will be taken to improve the VAT administration system. In 2006 the Ministry of Finance tries to, in co-operation with the Taxes Ministry, realize the project of opening separate VAT accounts in the banks. However, no common consensus was reached on this issue.
"We reached an agreement on other system. I think that it will yield positive results," the Minister said. Sharifov did not announce the new mechanism, but said that VAT is not envisaged to be paid through securities.