Baku, Azerbaijan, July 28
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
State banks of Azerbaijan didn’t pay dividends to the state budget in 1H17, which follows from an analysis of the main macroeconomic indicators and budget parameters published July 28 on the website of the country’s Accounts Chamber.
As of today, two banks are operating in the country with state participation in the share capital – the International Bank of Azerbaijan (95.05 percent) and Azer Turk Bank (75 percent).
According to budget forecasts, in 2017, Azer Turk Bank should transfer dividends in the amount of 4.118 million manats to the state budget. However, the bank didn’t make transfers to the state budget in 1H17, despite that according to its balance sheet, the bank’s profits totaled 1.43 million manats in the period.
In 2016, Azer Turk Bank didn’t transfer funds to the state budget either, despite its profits totaling 7.3 million manats. Then the Chamber of Accounts recommended the Supervisory Board of Azer Turk Bank to take measures to implement the forecasts on revenues.
As for the International Bank of Azerbaijan, it is currently in the process of recovering and “cleaning up” from problem assets with possible further privatization.
According to the Accounts Chamber, in general, dividends worth 5.95 million manats should be transferred to the state budget by state banks, non-bank credit organization Aqrarkredit and Azerlotereya JSC in 2017.
It is expected that these funds will be made up thanks to the profit in the amount of 150,000 manats from Aqrarkredit, 4.118 million manats – from Azer Turk Bank, 1.68 million manats – from Azerlotereya.
During the six months of 2017, only Azerlotereya transferred 500,000 manats to the state budget, which accounts for 8.4 percent of the annual forecast.