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Ilham Aliyev: "We should apply the same punishment to tax evaders as European countries"

17 October 2019 13:06 (UTC +04:00)

"A few days ago, Ali Asadov was appointed Prime Minister by my executive order. Ali Asadov was my aide for many years. I am sure that he will fulfill my instructions as Prime Minister. The main goal is to speed up economic growth and continue reforms," the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting on the economic area, APA reports.

"In my inauguration speech after last year’s presidential election, I set the goals practically for all key areas. That speech performance was of the nature of a program. After that, we embarked on hands-on work and deepened the reforms. The reforms carried out in the tax and customs sectors, the measures related to transparency have yielded results. In nine months, customs and tax authorities transferred more than 700 million manats into the budget above the plan. This shows once again how large our reserves are. Many companies are still not pay taxes in full. They do double-entry bookkeeping. Some companies do not register employees. True, tens of thousands of jobs have been formalized in recent times, and thus they were transferred from the dark zone to the white one. But this must be widespread. Many private companies still do not fully pay taxes and do double-entry bookkeeping.

Tax and other law enforcement agencies should take the most stringent measures against this type of "entrepreneurs". And entrepreneurs should know that they are required to pay taxes. They can’t be required to make any other payments. I set this task for all agencies: we need maximum transparency and accuracy. It is necessary to put an end to bribery and corruption. But entrepreneurs must pay state taxes in full. It is with these taxes that we implement social projects, settle IDPs and strengthen our army. Therefore, tax evaders should be held criminally liable.

We often hear that our standards and criteria should comply with European standards. We should apply the same punishment to tax evaders as European countries. Therefore, tax evasion should entail very serious consequences. I am instructing all relevant agencies," President Ilham Aliyev said.