Study of Small and Medium Enterprises in Azerbaijan - IFC

tion duplicate is addressed to the bank in which the company account is to be opened.
The business must open its permanent bank account within ten days of the issuance
of the notification duplicate. The one-stop-shop has also introduced the possibility for
opening a bank account online through the registration office. This option removes
the requirement to obtain the notification duplicate from the registration office,
present it to the bank, and then return it back to the tax administration. However, at
present, the online opening of a bank account applies only to a limited number of
banks. The total number of banks in Azerbaijan is far larger, which means that most
entrepreneurs still need to obtain the notification duplicate from the tax authorities,
present it in person to their bank and then return it back to the tax office. According
to the current National Bank regulation 12 , the bank should fill in the required information
and return the portions of the notification duplicate to the tax authority – a legal
requirement that is not being applied in practice.
Chart 3.4
Business registration
work flow
Consolidated
application
form
Registration
process work
flow performed
at the regional
office
Ministry of Taxes
AVIS
System
SSC
SSPF
Nevertheless, as a result of introducing the one-stop-shop, the business registration
process has been simplified. Entrepreneurs need only seven documents (see Box 3.3)
and must undergo six procedures to register their business compared to previous
thirty three documents and thirteen procedures (see Chart 3.5 and Annex 3.1).
Chart 3.5
Comparison of
business registration
before and after
reform*
35
30
25
20
33
Number of
documents
15
13
Number of steps
* In case of online opening of
a bank account entrepreneur
has to go through 5 steps.
This means that there is no
need to return notification
duplicate to the registration
office.
10
5
0
Before the reform
7 6
After the reform
12
NBA “Rules on opening, operating and closing of bank account” dated November 3, 2004.
Aze r b a i j a n Bu s i n e s s En a b l i n g En v i r o n m e n t Pr o j e c t 51