BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 29
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
In 2019, in order to increase the availability of the business environment and create more transparent and operational opportunities, comprehensive business reforms were carried out in Azerbaijan, Trend reports referring to the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication.
Reforms covering many areas have contributed to transparency, accountability, digitalization and expansion of cashless circulation, created effective opportunities for entrepreneurs to reduce the total number of procedures, save time and costs, and also created competitive environment.
The reforms touched upon various areas, such as state registration of legal entities, construction, electricity, property registration, taxes, foreign trade, court, public procurement and are important for the transition to the digital economy of a whole layer of public services, starting from obtaining building permits and operation of a facility, until connecting to power supply networks and registering property, as well as conducting public procurement.
Registration of a legal entity in accordance with the new program of the Ministry of Taxes on state registration of legal entities, created on the basis of amendments to the law “On State Registration and State Register of Legal Entities” and other legislative acts, is carried out via a “mobile and personal identification number” with the general registration procedure in just 20 minutes, and the entire registration procedure takes place on only one platform.
After the launch of the new program, 3,677 more legal entities were registered in Azerbaijan (an increase of 30.8 percent) than last year, and the share of electronic registration amounted to about 89 percent of the total number of registrations.
In connection with the acquisition of building permits on the basis of a “single window” principle, connection to power supply networks is also carried out.
As a result of the introduction of electronic application systems, contacts between entrepreneurs and officials were minimized, and opportunities were created for more expeditious and transparent receipt of permits.
In 2019, just like in 2018, the Tax Code was amended in connection with the payment of taxes, which led to changes in factors such as the time needed for preparation of tax reports and tax payment, the time needed to fill out documents to replace VAT and the number of tax rates.
In addition, the draft law “On Amendments to Azerbaijan’s Tax Code” for 2020 also defines the criteria for taxpayers subject to registration who cannot be held liable for violation of tax legislation for a period not exceeding three years from the date of its creation.
Compared with the beginning of 2019, investments in fixed assets grew by 3.5 percent, while at the same time investments in non-oil GDP - by 3.5 percent compared to last year, and non-oil exports grew by 16.5 percent in foreign trade.