“Currently, more than 880,000 active taxpayers, over 61,000 active VAT payers, and more than 242,000 active economic entities are operating in Azerbaijan. These figures are a direct result of economic expansion,” Orkhan Nazarli, Head of the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan, said in an interview with the Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC) and the REAL TV channel.
The Head of the State Tax Service noted that looking at the indicators of the past seven years, the share of the non-oil and gas sector in total tax revenues rose from 67 to 80 percent, thus marking a significant increase.
“We are looking not only at the absolute figures in the state budget, but also at the share of tax revenues in the gross domestic product. During that period, the share of tax revenues in GDP rose from 9.4 percent to 12.7 percent,” Nazarli emphasized.
He stressed that this indicator covers tax revenues only.
“According to international methodology, customs duties and social contributions are also considered when calculating the fiscal burden. Calculations based on that approach show that the share of fiscal revenues in GDP has increased by 5–6 percent over the past seven years. In other words, even as the economy grew, tax revenues increased at a higher rate,” the Head of the State Tax Service added.
