The average daily revenue being collected by Afghan customs offices has increased since the start of the fiscal year 1400, according to figures provided by the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance says 35 billion Afghanis (over $448M) have been collected in customs offices since the start of the fiscal year (Dec 21), which shows an increase in customs revenue compared to the first six months of the previous fiscal year (1399).
Acting Minister of Finance Khaled Payenda said the average daily income from customs offices is up to 330 million Afghanis (4 million and 230 thousand dollars), but three months ago, the average daily income was 180 million Afghanis (2 million and 307 thousand dollars).
The daily income of one of the customs offices in the country has increased by ten times, said Payenda at an event that was held on Monday inside the ministry.
“A province was not collecting 2 million to 3 million Afghanis a day, then on one day it collected 96 million Afghanis, and now that province collects 50 million Afghanis per day,” he said.
The Ministry of Finance says that there is still a corrupt network involving customs employees across the country.
“Our colleagues say that Redbull–energy drinks–and some other drinks are not included in our system and so these items … they are imported under the name of other things,” said Khaled Payenda, acting minister of finance, who added that “the problem is that we do not know who the merchants are, because only their brokers are coming to us.”
Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Chambers Federation asserts that the customs policies have many problems that enable corruption around the country.
“If the customs tax calculations are done in a different way in different provinces, or at different border areas or customs clearance centers, this will lead to corruption and a lack of coordination between the private sector and industries,” said Mohammad Ismail Ghazanfar, chairman of the Afghanistan Chambers Federation.
Previously the acting minister of finance in a session of the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Parliament, said that up to $8 million a day was being embezzled from customs offices in the country
