BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 24
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
Over 7.6 billion manat ($4.5 billion) was transferred to the Azerbaijani consolidated budget through the tax bodies from January through September 2019, of which more than 5.6 billion manat ($3.3 billion) accounted for tax fees and over 2.07 billion manat ($1.2 billion) - social insurance and unemployment insurance contributions paid to the Azerbaijani State Social Protection Fund, Trend reports referring to the Taxes Ministry.
The forecast for tax revenues was fulfilled from January through September 2019 by 106.4 percent, that is, 337.5 million manat ($198.5 million) more than predicted and by 5.7 percent or 302.8 million manat ($178.1 million) more than in the same period of last year.
The non-oil and gas sector accounted for 70 percent of tax revenues, while the oil and gas sector accounted for 30 percent. The annual forecast for tax revenues was fulfilled by 76.7 percent, including 78.9 percent of the forecast for the non-oil and gas sector from January through September 2019.
A decrease in tax revenues transferred from the oil and gas sector to the budget is observed amid a decrease in oil production under the production sharing agreements.
The revenues from the oil and gas sector decreased by 7.5 percent from January through September 2019 compared to the same period of last year, this decrease was fully compensated through the increased revenues from the non-oil and gas sector.
Having increased by 12.6 percent (439 million manat) ($258.2 million), tax revenues from the non-oil and gas sector amounted to more than 3.9 billion manat ($2.3 billion) from January through September 2019 compared to the same period of last year. The forecast for this sector was fulfilled by 110.1 percent, tax collections exceeded the forecast by 361.1 million manat ($212.4 million).
The revenues from the private segment of the non-oil and gas sector increased by 14.1 percent and exceeded the nominal GDP growth rate of the sector. The share of the private segment in non-oil tax revenues increased by 77.3 percent.
The high growth rate of tax revenues in the non-oil sector was mainly registered in terms of VAT, excise taxes, income tax, property tax and land tax. The growth in revenues from land tax amounted to 51.7 percent, from income tax - 24.5 percent, from VAT - by 20.2 percent, from excise taxes - 4.8 times.
There has been a steady increase in the share of VAT, excise tax, land tax and property tax in the structure of tax revenues.
The share of VAT in the structure of tax revenues of the non-oil sector reached 34.4 percent while the share of income tax - 26.1 percent.
There was an increase in tax revenues in all spheres of the non-oil sector from January through September 2019. The highest growth rates were observed in the communications sector (34.5 percent), the banking and insurance sectors (30.6 percent), the retail trade sector (21.8 percent), the services sector (17.6 percent), the transport sector (14.2 percent), other segments of the economy (21.8 percent).
The real tax potential was revealed in the spheres of economic activity and tax revenues to the budget increased as a result of the work carried out in the field of improvement and digitalization of tax administration.
In particular, this is observed in the dynamics of VAT revenues. The growth rate of VAT revenues amounted to more than 20 percent from January through September 2019. This growth exceeds 30 percent in some spheres, including trade, transport, agricultural and others.
The tax revenues from the districts increased by 12.2 percent, the share of regions in total tax revenues increased to 10.2 percent from January through September 2019.
The legalization processes in the economy are also characterized by the number of active taxpayers, including VAT payers and active taxable entities.
As of October 1, 2019, the number of active taxpayers increased by 13 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year, the number of active VAT payers - by 38.5 percent, while the number of active taxable entities - by 12.6 percent.
The exemption of some profit from taxes - up to 8,000 manats ($4,706) for individuals involved in the private segment of the non-oil sector in 2019 contributed to the creation of new job places and ensured transparency of the labor income.
About 90,000 new labour contracts were registered in the private sector from January through September 2019, which is 71.4 percent of the total number of labor contracts.
In these conditions, income from social insurance contributions increased by 20.6 percent and the forecast was fulfilled by 107.2 percent.
The revenues from non-budget organizations increased by 21.9 percent and the forecast was fulfilled by 108.7 percent.
The proceeds from unemployment insurance contributions increased by 40.3 percent and the forecast was fulfilled by 107.3 percent.
The non-budget organizations’ revenues from unemployment insurance increased by 44.8 percent and the forecast was fulfilled by 110.4 percent.