The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is predicted to pay 200 million manats ($117.6 million) in dividends to the state budget in 2023, Report informs, citing the opinion of the Chamber of Account on the Budget Envelope.
In the state budget of 2023, the dividends from enterprises whose shares are owned by the state are predicted to be 321.2 million manats ($188.9 million), 2.5 times more than the figures of 2021, and 3 times higher than the forecast for 2022. The main reason for the increase was the growth in the forecast for state-owned non-financial organizations (220 million manats - $129.4 million).
In the draft state budget for 2023, 200 million manats ($117.6 million) of dividend payments from the state-owned non-financial organizations are planned to be transferred from SOCAR, 15 million manats ($8.8 million) from Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC, and 5 million manats ($2.9 million) from AzerGold CJSC.
In 2022, the dividends to be received from state-owned non-financial organizations are only 5 million manats ($2.94 million) from Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping, of which 4 million manats ($2.4 million) were paid to the state budget during the eight months of the current year.
Even though the 2022 draft budget did not include the payment of dividends from Agrarkredit CJSC, the payment of 0.2 million manats ($117,600) in dividends calculated for the end of 2021 was made to the state budget. In general, funds of 124.7 million manats ($73.4 million) were received from this source during the last eight months of 2022, of which 120.5 million manats ($70.9 million) fell to the share of International Bank of Azerbaijan OJSC, 0.2 million manats to the share of Agrarkredit JSC BOKT, and 4 million manats ($2.35 million) to the share of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC. No dividend was paid by Azer Turk Bank JSC.