The government fails to comply with many of the requirements it has set for the minimum consumer basket. One of them is the publication in the press of the cost of the contents of the minimum consumer basket. On June 23, 2005, the Cabinet of Ministers issued Resolution No. 118 “On Approving the Composition of the Minimum Consumer Basket in the Republic of Azerbaijan”, https://e-qanun.az/framework/10061, which instructed the State Statistics Committee (SSC) to calculate the cost of the minimum consumer basket nationwide and ensure its publication once a year in official state publications. However, no figure has ever been published either in the press or on the website of the statistics agency. Turan turned to the State Statistics Committee on this issue. The request also included an information on the cost of the minimum consumer basket of food, non-food products and services for 2020-2022. Deputy SSC Chairman Yusif Yusifov told Turan that the Committee calculates the cost of the consumer basket and once a year submits it to the Cabinet of Ministers. He denied any official or unofficial instruction to prevent the publication of this information in the press. Turan news agency examined the Russian experience. Ironically, in that country, the government annually publishes the cost of the minimum consumer basket for different population groups (able-bodied people, pensioners and children), as well as the cost of the subsistence minimum. Economist Rovshan Agayev refers in this regard to the experience of neighbouring Turkey, which has higher democratic values. This type of information is open to the public in that country as well. “I believe our statistics is too politicised. The SSC cannot disclose crucial information without permission from the Presidential Administration, the highest echelon of power. There is a very simple reason for this: the system itself does not allow statistics to be free.” The expert notes that institutions with political autonomy which are supposed to be independent of political power, such as the Central Bank and the statistical authority, are under tight control of the top executive. For this reason, in many cases they have to apply internal censorship. It ought to be noted that the above-mentioned document instructs the Ministry of Economy to review every three years the composition of the minimum consumer busket in cooperation with the Ministries of Labour and Social Security, Finance, Health, the State Statistics Committee, the Confederation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan, state scientific institutions and organisations. However, the document has not been amended since 2014. The same document instructed the Ministry of Economy and the State Statistics Committee to prepare a methodology for the formation of the minimum consumer basket and the calculation of the subsistence minimum in Azerbaijan, and to approve it in coordination with the relevant executive authorities. IA Turan was told by the SSC that the said methodology was approved, but due to the fact that it “is not a regulatory legal act has not been placed in the portal www.e-qanun.az.

Source: Turan News Agency