A conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the national leader Heydar Aliyev was held on February 10 in the administrative building of the Ministry of Economy on the topic "Heydar Aliyev and Azerbaijan’s tax system: towards new challenges". The event was attended by the management of the Ministry of Economy and the State Tax Service under the ministry, MPs, representatives of government agencies, higher educational institutions, public associations of entrepreneurs, businessmen and media representatives.
The memory of the national leader Heydar Aliyev was honored with a minute of silence, and a film about the Great Leader was demonstrated at the opening ceremony of the conference.
The Head of the State Tax Service (STS), Orkhan Nazarli greeted the participants of the event. Speaking at the conference, the Head of STS made an overview of the economic reforms carried out under the direct leadership of the national leader Heydar Aliyev.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov stressed that great leader Heydar Aliyev attaches special importance to the economic progress of the country and the development of the business environment: The national leader, who noted the leading role of tax policy as an important component of the national economic strategy with his thesis "We must regulate the market economy through taxes" is the initiator and founder of the formation of the tax system of independent Azerbaijan. M. Jabbarov said that the national tax system, founded by the national leader Heydar Aliyev, has undergone a fundamental modernization process under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev over the past 20 years, the material and technical base has been expanded, and the tax administration has been fundamentally restructured technologically. Noting that despite the high level of positive dynamics of oil and gas prices in 2022, 50 percent of the state budget's revenues are generated by the non-oil and gas sector, the minister drew attention to the important role of tax authorities in increasing budget revenues and the successes achieved. Stating that regulatory functions of the tax system play an important role in the process of ensuring economic growth in the country, M. Jabbarov announced the main goals of the tax policy in the coming period. He emphasized that these goals will be realized, first of all, on the basis of economic incentives: “We see this in the example of the liberated territories. As you know, very wide incentives were adopted in the field of tax, social protection, and customs legislation since the beginning of this year, based on the task and initiative of Mr. President”. The minister noted that the expansion of digitalization in tax policy is an important direction. In particular, the synchronization of cooperation between the State Tax Service and the State Customs Committee in recent months should be noted. In fact, this allowed to ensure the application of the same approaches for taxpayers and increased the efficiency of the activities of both agencies.
The conference continued its work with sessions on "The role of Heydar Aliyev in the formation of the modern tax system and his activities in the field of economic policy", "Modern tax policy: business-state relations and international trends" and "Restoration of territories liberated from occupation: tax policy as an incentive tool".
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Economic Scientific-Research Institute Mahir Humbatov made a speech in the first session dedicated to the topic " The role of Heydar Aliyev in the formation of the modern tax system and his activity in the field of economic policy". He mentioned that the policy implemented by Heydar Aliyev in economic and political fields yielded real results in the sub-sectors which influenced the development of economy.
Mentioning the nationwide leader’s initiative to establish the research centre under the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and base this centre in Azerbaijan, M. Humbatov noted that in recent days it had been agreed that the ECO Research Centre would be established in Baku and brought to the attention that Pakistan officially joined this cooperation.
In addition, Mahir Humbatov noted the achievements made in the transport sector, being a sub-sector impacting the development of economy the foundation of which was laid by the nationwide leader in the beginning of 1990-s. In particular he dwelt on the accomplishments in the infrastructure projects, Baku International Sea Trade Port, Baku-Tbilisi-Karts railroad line, airports in the territories liberated from the occupation, and those in other regions, and also touched on the success in increasing transport factors benefiting from the geographic location of Azerbaijan to contribute to the economy.
Furthermore, M. Humbatov pointed out the successful steps undertaken in the non-oil sector, the foundation of which had been laid by the nationwide leader in the early 1990-s, in the education and land reforms fields, privatization and principles of protection of state property, as well as in the area of wise protection of the economy, infrastructure, state companies, strategic facilities from the scammers during the transition period to the market economy in the course of transformation of economy of the country.
M. Humbatov underlined that the nationwide leader’s presidency was marked by an increase in the number of countries, especially of strategic countries, with which an agreement was reached on the elimination of double taxation.
At the end, a broad exchange of ideas on the mentioned topics took place.
