BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 22
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
Budget revenues of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) for the period from January through December 2020 reached 9.4 billion manat ($5.5 billion), while budget expenditures constituted 12.4 billion manat ($7.3 billion), Trend reports referring to SOFAZ.
Revenues worth 7.4 billion manat ($4.3 billion) were received from the implementation of oil and gas agreements, including 6.6 billion manat ($3.9 billion) from the sale of profit oil and gas, 767.8 million manat ($451.6 million) as bonus payments, 6.7 million manat ($3.9 million) as acreage fee and 20.4 million manat ($12 million) as transit payments.
The revenues from managing SOFAZ’s assets from January through December 2020 amounted to 1.9 million manat ($1.1 million), which accounted for 21.1 percent of total revenues.
SOFAZ’s extra-budgetary revenues related to the foreign exchange movements amounted to 3.5 million manat ($2.05 million).
As per 2020 budget of the Fund, 12.2 million manat ($7.2 million) were transferred to the state budget. During this period, 200 million manat ($117 million) were directed to financing the improvement of social-economic condition of refugees and internally displaced people and 4.1 million manat ($2.4 million) were allocated to the “State Program on Raising Competitiveness of Higher Education in Azerbaijan in 2019-2023”.
SOFAZ’s administrative and operational expenses for the reporting period totaled 21.2 million manat ($12.5 million).
As of January 1, 2021, the value of SOFAZ’s assets under management amounted to $43.6 billion, decreasing by 0.56 percent compared to the beginning of the year ($43.3 billion).
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented collapse in oil demand in the context of economic contraction, and a crash in oil prices. Although SOFAZ’s budget spending exceeded its revenues to support fiscal balance of the country, revenues from managing SOFAZ’s assets and extra-budgetary revenues played significant role on the increase of SOFAZ’s AuM. During the period, the total amount of extra-budgetary revenues and revenues from managing SOFAZ’s assets equaled to $3.2 billion.
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