Tax on salaries to reach 5.2b afghanis

KABUL): Revenue from taxing the salaries of public and private servants stood at 4.7 billion afghanis last year, an official said on Sunday.

The income could reach 5.2 billion afghanis by the end of the current year, hoped the treasury head at the Ministry of Finance, Haji Mohammad Aqa.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News that people receiving 5,000 to 12,500 afghanis in salary had to pay two percent in tax. Those who received 100,000 afghanis in salary paid a 10 percent tax.

Aqa said the tax had accounted for more than one billion afghanis during the first three months of the current year and that the revenue was on the rise.

The number of government servants had increased to 700,000 from last year’s figure of 648,000, Aqa said, linking the revenue boost to the expansion of government departments and implementation of the tax law in the private sector.

He said some private organisations were still trying to evade taxes, but the ministry had stepped up efforts to bring more and more private institutions under the tax net.

ma/mud