Non-oil sector's tax share in state budget hits $1.8 bln

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan's Taxes Ministry has generated 2.849 billion manats of revenues as part of tax payments for the state budget in January-May 2015. This figure was equal to 3.12 billion manats in the same period of 2014, the ministry said.

In the reported period the tax share from non-oil sector to the state budget amounted to 1.906 billion manats, or 66.9 percent of total revenues.

Incomes from this line increased by 11 percent compared to the same period of last year.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan, a leading economy in the South Caucasus region, has set a goal to make non-oil sector the key to the country's sustainable development.

Despite the fact that the share of the non-oil sector in Azerbaijan’s GDP already exceeds 70 percent, most of the export potential is linked to oil and gas. Oil, oil products and gas occupy lion’s share in Azerbaijan’s exports, making up 92 percent of the total figure.

Therefore, the government is searching for alternatives to oil revenues. It pays special attention to diversification, as a result of which Azerbaijan’s non-oil economy have seen a growth by 10- 15 percent over the last two-three years.

2014 was declared the Year of Industry and a number of measures associated with the development of industry were taken. The president declared 2015 the Year of Agriculture, which is expected to give a new stimulus to the development and modernization of agriculture, ensuring a complex and systematic approach to settlement of problems in the agrarian field, involving the government's administrative and financial resources in this sector, and promoting the country's agrarian potential.

Azerbaijan plans to export products worth $26.8 billion in 2015, some $2.7 billion of which will be goods of non-oil sector.

The share of non-oil sector in Azerbaijan's GDP in 2015 is predicted at 65.1 percent, which is 5.5 percent higher than the forecasts for 2014 and 8.5 percent higher than in 2013.

Official exchange rate on June 11 was 1.0477 AZN/USD.