Economists treat financing of Azerbaijani social sphere as insufficient

The Parliament of Azerbaijan has approved the 2020 budget. It is planned to allot over 38 percent of all the expenses to the social sphere. The economists interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" treat this amount as insufficient.

Contrary to officials' statements, the state budget is not socially oriented, since it still has a large share of expenditures on construction and maintenance of power structures, Rashad Gasanov, an expert at the Centre for Economic and Social Development, believes.

"Despite the increase of spending for public health and education by 31% and 18%, respectively, overall expenditures on social sphere make only 38% of the total budget, while in the developed countries of the world, the social share reaches 70-80% of the budget," Mr Gasanov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Nemat Aliev, the head of the economic commission of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), also believes that the 2020 state budget should not be treated as socially oriented. In particular, he has drawn attention to an increase by over 34% of the revenues from paid services of budgetary institutions.

"In the 2020 budget, it is planned to collect 839.5 million manats under this article, which is by 212.9 million more than had been projected for this year. This is the 34% growth. Thus, the budgetary organizations, that is, the state-owned ones, should expand the range of their paid services. This means that people will pay more for services that were free in the past," the expert has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 2, 2019 at 01:59 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.