Parliament approves State Budget for 2020

By Azernews

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

The Azerbaijani Parliament has adopted the 2020 State Budget in the second reading.

At a plenary meeting of the Azerbaijani parliament, the draft law “On Azerbaijan’s State Budget for 2020” has been submitted for discussion in the second reading on 25 November.

Azerbaijan’s state budget revenues for 2020 are projected at $14.2 billion and expenditures at $15.8 billion.

It is worthy to mention that compared to 2019, the volume of revenue for 2020 is $13.6 billion or 4.4 percent and the amount of expenditure is $1 billion or 6.7 percent higher.

Additionally, revenues of Azerbaijan’s consolidated budget for 2020 will amount to $16.223 billion and expenses - $17.375 billion.

Budget revenues include 55 percent or $7.9 billion oil and 45 percent or $6.2 billion non-oil income. Next year it is planned to transfer $6.6 billion from the State Oil Fund to the State Budget.

Notably, next year social expenditure will amount to $6.2 billion, which is $1.6 billion or 37 percent more than the current year.

According to estimates of economist Elchin Suleymanov, the state budget of 2020 is both investment and socially oriented, and social expenditures in the next year's public budget project exceed 8 percent.

"There is an increase of about $1.7 billion in the state budget for 2020, which mainly is envisaged for social sphere. Besides it, reducing of public administration, infrastructure, construction costs, and increasing social expenditures is a key point of efficiency of the budget,” he mentioned.

Suleymanov also stressed that overal, 40 percent of the budget is socially oriented, and there is a significant growth in outlay on education, science and healthcare. Noticeable part of the budget's expenditure is directed to health care. Healthcare expenses will increase by 34 percent compared to 2019 ($612.9 million) and will amount to $823.5 million in 2020.

“Moreover, the compulsory health insurance will be implemented next year, which will enable medical services more accessible for people,” Suleymanov stated.

In general, there were 19 issues for discussion on the Parliament’s agenda. The issues raised by the deputies at the plenary meeting in connection with the budget were studied by the Ministry of Finance.

After the discussions, the state budget was adopted in the second reading.