Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 4 /Trend A.Akhundov/
During a meeting on Monday, five committees of the Milli Majlis (parliament) of Azerbaijan, namely the Economic Policy, Social Policy, Security and Defence, Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology and Agrarian Policy Committees recommended the draft 2014 state budget for discussion at the plenary meeting.
The draft state budget was discussed by the Economic Policy, Social Policy, Agrarian Policy, Security and Defence, Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committees.
Revenues of the state budget for the next year are forecast at 18.384 billion manats (31.4 per cent of GDP forecasted for 2014) and expenses are forecast at 20.063 billion manats (34.3 per cent of GDP).
It is expected that in 2014 the revenues will be lower than the forecasted figures of 2013 for 775 million manats, or four per cent and will exceed the actual figures of 2012 to 1.103 billion manats, or 6.4 per cent.
In 2014 expenditure will grow by 1.1 per cent compared to 2013 by 15.2 per cent compared to the actual figure in 2012.
The budget deficit is forecast at 1.679 billion manats compared to that for 2013 at the level of 691 million manats and the actual figure for 2012 at the level of 135 million manats.
Aside from that, the Azerbaijani parliament has recommended the draft law on the budget of the State Social Protection Fund (SSPF) and the draft law on the cost of living and need criteria for 2014 to be put forward for parliament's further consideration.
According to the project, it is projected to increase the SSPF's expenditures and revenues by 11.2 per cent in 2014, or 295.8 million manats up to 2.928 billion manats.
The cost of living in the country will be increased from 116 manats this year to 125 manats in 2014 including the working-age population up to 136 manats (125 manats in 2013), for children and pensioners to 103 manats (93 manats and 94 manats respectively).
The draft law 'On the level of need criteria for 2014' provides for an increase of this criterion for assigning targeted social assistance from 93 manats in 2013 to 100 manats.
The official exchange rate for Nov.4 is 0.7844 AZN/USD.