The Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan has warned about a number of risks in its analyses regarding the execution of the state budget for the first half of 2025.
Modern.az reports this, citing the Chamber's report.
The institution's report states that the results of the period under review reveal the existence of certain problems, alongside positive trends.
According to the Chamber's statement, the main share in the growth of state budget revenues belonged to oil revenues, particularly transfers from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan. Thus, although revenues increased by 961.1 million manats in January-June of this year, 728.9 million manats or 75.8 % of this was provided specifically by oil revenues.
The report notes that in some cases, changes made to legal acts were not taken into account during the execution of revenues. For example, 1.2 million manats for an abolished state fee were again included in the budget.
The institution also emphasized that budget discipline remains at a low level for some expenditure areas. In January-June of this year, state budget expenditures were executed at 17.1 billion manats, which constitutes only 41.3 % of the annually approved amount.
Another important point was the allocation of funds from the free balance of the single treasury account to reduce domestic debt. However, "On the Budget System" Law does not provide for such a mechanism. During the reporting period, approximately 1.4 billion manats were used for this purpose.
The Chamber of Accounts also announced that the execution of funds intended for return to the Guarantee Fund was low. Thus, out of the 203.7 million manats planned for return this year, only 10.7 million manats have been recovered.
The document additionally stated that the closed auction mechanism also creates risks in the long-term perspective. The institution noted that while this mechanism is effective in managing short-term obligations, the failure to attract new investors to the market limits liquidity opportunities and reduces the potential for diversification of the debt market.
