No taxes from 10 Paktia districts in a decade

GARDEZ (Pajhwok): The government has failed to collect income taxes from 10 out of 13 districts of southeastern Paktia province during the last one decade, officials said Tuesday.

The districts where the government is not paid taxes include Zurmat, Shwak, Gerda Serai, Wazi Zadran, Mirzaka, Ahmadkhel, Laja Mangal, Tsamkani, Janikhel and Zazai Aryub.

Big commercial centers exist in Shahri Naw area of Tsamkani, Taamir area of Zurmat and Sheshti area of Zazai Aryub districts, where commercial markets and thousands of shops operate, but no money is paid to the government in tax.

Deputy Paktia governor, Abdul Wali Sahi, told Pajhwok Afghan News that corruption in the revenue department was the main reason behind uncollected taxes.

He said efforts were underway to make the revenue collection process transparent and corruption-free.

 “Insecurity in some areas may also be a reason that taxes are not collected, but the major problem is corruption,” he said.

Paktia provincial council head, Abdul Malik Zazai, said he had shared the corruption issue in revenue offices several times with the local administration, but to no avail.

“We have shared this problem with the relevant organs, but we saw no action taken,” he said.

Keftan Ekhlas, former chief of the Zurmat district and current chief of Zazai Aryub district, said that around 1,000 shops and business centers were being run in Zurmat district, which could generate a lot of revenue.

He said he had several times sent letters to the revenue department about the collection of tax from shops in the district.

“There are a large number of shops in Zurmat, the sales of some shops are above 50,000 afghanis a day. No response was received of the letters I sent to the governor’s house to create revenue offices in Zuarmat district to collect taxes,” Ekhlas said.

Najibullah Totakhel, a lecturer at Paktia Economy University, said the Ministry of Finance was responsible for collecting taxes, preventing corruption and using modern technology for transparency in the process.

He said if people were provided with required services in return for taxes, there would be no problem in the process.

“The government should deal with shortage of personnel in the revenue sector,” he said.

Paktia revenue department head, Azim Khan Ahmadzai, confirmed taxes from the 10 districts had not been collected over the last 10 years.

He said the shortage of personnel was main reason these taxes could not be collected.

He said they currently collected taxes only from Ahmadabad, Sayed Karam and Dand Patan districts but other districts would be also covered once the personnel were increased. Ahmadzai said many posts in the revenue department remained vacant.

mds/ma