Customs revenues to public budget exceed forecasts in 2016

/By Azernews/

By Fatma Babayeva

The actual customs revenues to the state budget of Azerbaijan exceeded the forecasts by 23 percent in the first four months of 2016.

The statement was made by Aydin Aliyev, the head of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan to the reporters on May 5.

More than 644 million manats ($428 million) custom revenues were transferred to the state budget by SCC in January to April 2016, thus fulfilling the forecast by 123 percent, said Aliyev.

The head of the state committee voiced hope for fulfilling the forecasts successfully for the whole year.

Overall, the customs revenues to the state budget of Azerbaijan are forecasted to be 1.81 billion manats ($1.2 billion) for 2016.

In addition, revenues of the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2016 were approved to be in the amount of 16.822 billion manats ($11.17 billion), and its expenses to amount 18.495 billion manats ($12.286 billion).

Previously, the state budget of Azerbaijan was estimated for year 2016 on the basis of the oil price set at $25 per barrel.

The SCC fully executed the forecasts on state budget proceedings for 2015 as well.

Currently, Azerbaijan pursues a policy to increase country’s non-oil sector exports. Thus, the country tries to make custom procedures faster and more transparent in order to boost the development of the country’s economy.

Earlier, the SCC introduced e-service primary declaration that facilitates custom procedures by allowing entrepreneurs to import goods into the country by submitting a brief declaration on imported goods and vehicles. It speeds up the registration process, eliminates various bureaucratic obstacles and saves time.

Moreover, Azerbaijan is interested to use its geographically favorable location and transportation potential and turn itself into a major transport hub between East and West.

Along with applying attractive transportation fees, the country is also simplifying its transit procedures.

Since February 2016, all Azerbaijani railway customs checkpoints have been equipped with special facility to check the freight carriages without stopping and unloading the carriages in the direction of Georgia and Russia.

Favorable conditions on the custom points are expected to enable Azerbaijan to continue revitalizing its economy.

What’s more, the customs duty rates are not expected to increase sharply, even the tariffs for some goods will be reduced.