More projects awarded investment incentives document

By Azernews

By Sara Israfilbayova

So far, 169 entities have received 182 investment incentives documents, which stipulate investment worth 1.6 billion manats ($940.7 million) into domestic production and creation of more than 11,000 work places.

The presidential decree of January 2016 defines the rules underlying the release of an "Investment Incentives Document" -  used to grant tax and custom duties benefits to entrepreneurs.

The document is issued on the basis of the following criteria: investment in priority areas; minimum investment amount (value determined by the Cabinet of Ministers); localization of investment projects in priority regions (identified by the Cabinet of Ministers).

About 70 of the granted 182 investment incentives documents cover the agriculture, while 112 relate to the industrial activities. Most of the documents were issued in such areas as intensive gardening, tea growing, production of food products and production of rubber and plastic products, Azertac reported.

For the import of equipments on preferential terms, 169 entities were provided with 744 confirmatory documents and total value of concession is $30.5 million.

Azerbaijani businessmen became eligible to get the investment incentives documents following the approval of amendments proposed to the Tax Code of the country.

Under the investment incentives document, half of the revenue of an individual entrepreneur, profits of legal entity are exempted from income tax for seven years. Import of equipment for the implementation of the projects is also exempt of VAT and customs duties.

Encouraging business doing in the country is one of the priorities for the government, which supports entrepreneurs through creating necessary conditions for the development of a healthy business environment in the country.

To this end, it is planned to create the Agency of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Guarantee Credit Fund in 2017-2018.

Also, there is the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry that has been operating since 1992 to provide preferential loans from the state budget for small and medium business in an effort to develop entrepreneurship in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The NFES allocated 190 million manats ($111.7 million) for financing projects of local business entities in 2016.