The Ministry of Finance says that the draft budget for solar year 1401 has been prepared and will be sent to the cabinet for approval.
Officials at the Ministry of Finance said that it is the first time in two decades that the national budget has been prepared without accounting for foreign aid in the country.
Ahmad Wali Haqmal, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, said that the revenue that has been collected from customs and other domestic sources was considered in the 1401 budget.
“This is the first time in the past twenty years or two decades that we have made this kind of budget that does not rely on foreign aid, and we have made this budget through our domestic revenues,” said Ahmad Wali Haqmal, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.
Haqmal added that the money collected from customs and other domestic sources will be enough for the domestic expenses of the country.
“In general, all of our internal resources and revenue sources are active and it’s getting better day by day; the key is that there is no corruption in its collection,” Haqmal said.
Meanwhile, some economists say that the cutting-off of billions of dollars of foreign aid to Afghanistan will affect the implementation of major development projects in the country.
“The lack of foreign assistance, or the existence of foreign aid at a much lower level, means that we cannot properly implement and put together the 1401 budget,” said Iraj Faqiri, an economist.
The exact budget for the fiscal year 1401 has not yet been determined, while the budget for 1400 in the previous government was more than 473 billion afghanis, of which 311 billion was allocated for the ordinary budget and another 161 billion went to the development budget. And more than 70% of the total budget was from foreign aid pledged.
