BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 27
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
The state budget data for 2021 has been disclosed in Azerbaijan this week, Trend reports.
The revenues of the Azerbaijani consolidated budget for 2021 are projected at 23.8 billion manat ($14 billion), which is by 1.5 billion manat ($882 million) or 6.6 percent more than in 2020.
The projected expenditure of the consolidated budget will amount to 31.2 billion manat ($18.3 billion), which is by 855 million manat ($502 million) or 2.8 percent more than in 2020.
The deficit of the 2021 consolidated budget is projected to amount to 7.3 billion manat ($4.3 billion), which is by 610.1 million manat ($358.9 million) or 7.7 percent less than in 2020.
Some 2.2 billion manat ($1.3 billion) are envisaged for the reconstruction and restoration of the Azerbaijani territories liberated from the Armenian occupation, 4.6 billion manat ($2.7 billion) - for defense and national security, including 1.9 billion manat ($1.1 billion)- for the defense forces, 260.6 million manat ($153.3 million) - for national security, 281.6 million manat ($165.6 million) - for the border service, 3.9 million manat ($2.3 million) - for research in the field of defense and national security, 2.1 billion manat ($1.2 billion) - for other activity related to the defense and national security.
Moreover, Azerbaijani Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov said at the meeting of the Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship of the Azerbaijani parliament that it is planned to reduce the share of revenues from the oil sector by four percent in 2021.
One of the main goals is to increase the share of the non-oil sector in revenues.
“The revenues from taxes worth 5.7 billion manat ($3.3 billion) are expected to be obtained from the non-oil sector in 2021,” Sharifov said.
At the same meeting, Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Elman Rustamov stressed that some media and social networks have recently expressed the views that devaluation is expected to occur next year.
"There are no grounds for this,” Rustamov added. “If the Azerbaijani government did not take such a step in the most acute period of the crisis, then it will not do it now."
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan also released the statistics data for 11 months of 2020 during the outgoing week.
Thus, the money supply in manat terms (M2) in Azerbaijan at the end of November 2020 amounted to 18.6 billion manat ($10.9 billion), which is by 11.7 percent more compared to the same period of last year.
The biggest share of loans in Azerbaijan accounted for the household sector, amounting to 6.7 billion manat ($3.9 billion) or 46 percent of lending to the real sector.
Moreover, this week the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved technical assistance to the INNOLAND Incubation and Acceleration Center as part of its partnership strategy for Azerbaijan for 2019-2023.
The project is funded by the South Korean Partnership Fund, the amount of technical support is $500,000.
Incubation and acceleration services in Azerbaijan will be rendered in Ganja and Sheki cities through Ganja State University and Azerbaijan State Agrarian University, as well as through Innoland’s branch office - Innoland Sheki.
Those working in the state and oil sectors, non-state and non-oil sectors, individuals performing work (services) on the basis of civil contracts of a legal nature, and individuals engaged in entrepreneurial activity in Azerbaijan will pay the fees for mandatory health insurance from January 1, 2021 in accordance with the law on “Health insurance”.
The amount of the insurance fee for each person is 90 manat ($52) in the administrative-territorial units of the mandatory health insurance applied since January 2020; 90 manat ($52) + 90 manat ($52) in administrative-territorial units applied since January 2021 and multiplied by the consumer price index for the country; and 67.5 manat ($39.7) + 67.5 manat ($39.7) in administrative-territorial units applied since April 2021 and multiplied by the consumer price index for the country.
The outgoing week was also remembered for the multidirectional change in prices for Azerbaijani oil and the decline in the Azerbaijani manat rate in relation to the currencies of the main partner countries.