Transfers from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) to the state budget will be reduced by 1.5 billion manats in 2017, Samir Sharifov, Azerbaijani finance minister, reported.
The minister added that the transfers would be reduced to keep the country’s foreign exchange reserves at the same level.
“As Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, while generating the revenue side of the state budget, we must pay more attention to the income from other sources, rather than deductions from SOFAZ”, he said.
“Therefore, the forecast for contributions from the country’s State Customs Committee, as well as the tax revenue forecasts will be increased in the state budget for 2017”, Sharifov added.
SOFAZ’s transfers to the Azerbaijani state budget-2016 are envisaged to stand at 7.615 billion manat. Accordingly, that index for 2017 is envisaged at 6.1 billion manat.
SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.
As of July 1, SOFAZ’s assets increased by 4.6% and amounted to $35.1 billion as compared to $33.57 billion in early 2016. (Trend/Business World Magazine)
