24 January 2008, 23:08
Azerbaijani tax officials inspect opposition's printing houses
For several days in a row, tax services of Azerbaijan are examining the publishing house "Chap Evi" (House of Press). Today, from the morning, representatives of the Baku Tax Department visited the publishing house again and continued withdrawal of documentation on financial and economic activities of the enterprise.
Shakhbaz Khuduoglu, the owner of the publishing house, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that employees of the Tax Department took away all the documents. Now, according to the legislation, they should inspect the documents within 30 days. Should any gross infringements be revealed the term of the audit can be prolonged.
However, Mr Khuduoglu thinks these audits to be politically motivated, since his publishing house is printing several oppositional newspapers and magazines.
Shakhbaz Khuduoglu has noted that the "prejudiced" attitude of tax agents gives him grounds to believe that "audit outcomes can also be prejudiced." At the same time, he has informed that despite the audits the work of his publishing house never stopped and goes on.
We remind you that the "Chap Evi" publishing house has been printing, for a number of years already, a number of well-known Azerbaijani oppositional newspapers: "Eni Musavat", "Azadlyg", "New Times", "Rating", etc.
Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent
