On March 1, 2011 was held the meeting of the Georgian Government. The agenda included 51 items.
Before the meeting started, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Nika Gilauri, made a statement with respect to reorganization of the Council of Disputes under the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. We present the Prime Minister's speech:
"Good day. Before we start discussing the issues on the agenda, I would like to emphasize one of the most important issues and to introduce it to the public. The issue will be of particular importance for representatives of the private sector, businessmen or investors. I am talking about a slight reorganization of the Council of Disputes under the Ministry of Finance. Up to now, in case if the tax authority inspected a company and the company did not agree with tax charges, the latter was eligible to appeal against the tax charges to the Revenue Service and after this, to the Ministry of Finance. After much discussion and consultation, we decided to hold one more forum of additional discussion, but this time, with business ombudsman. The Council of Disputes will have one more chamber headed by the business ombudsman. The chamber will be formed by representatives of the private sector, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Finance and other bodies. The final decision will be made in this body. Of course, after this, a representative of the private sector will be eligible to appeal against the decision to the court. Although, previous to the court, the final decision will be made not by the Ministry of Finance itself, but by much more independent chamber under the business ombudsman, which will be separated from the body and make the final decision on the final tax charges. This practice works in many countries. We have got acquainted with experience of different countries and think that this will raise trust of the private sector and investors to the Tax Code of Georgia and increase economic activity in the nearest future.
I would also like to tell you that according to the preliminary data, index of economic activity was quite high in January. The economic growth was higher than 9%, in accordance with the preliminary data. During the resent period, we have highest indexes in January.
I have one more piece of information for the public. This is the information from the Minister of Finance which he would like to present to the members of the government. I would like the same presentation to be carried out for the public and journalists. This is the presentation on the part of $4.5 billion we have spent during the past years. As you already know, in 2008, a Donor's Conference was held in Brussels, where $4.5 billion was pledged to be allocated for Georgia. After this, we have cooperated with all donor organizations and executed agreements during this period. One part of the sum has already been spent in different infrastructural projects; the second part is currently being spent, while the third part will be spent in the years 2012-2013. It has to be publicly known what these sums have been spent for, what kind of agreements have been executed. Today, the Minister of Finance will present this to the members of the government. I would like to ask him to conduct this presentation for journalists and the public in the nearest future, to make everyone know what the sums allocated from international donors are used for. Apart from this, I would like to tell everyone that the information is fully available on the website of the Ministry of Finance. It is to be emphasized that at first, donor organizations pledged to allocate $4.5 billion, but as a result of further cooperation, funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank increased and in total, the amount raised from $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion. Georgia will receive the amount during these years. We received the sums in 2008. In the years 2008-2009-2010, large amount of the sum, specifically, up to $2 billion was spent. The additional amount of more than $3 billion will be spent in the years 2011-2012-2013. This provides economic activity of the country and somehow guarantees flow of foreign amounts in Georgia."
Prime Minister's Press Service