Banking restrictions behind soaring prices: Traders

KABUL (Pajhwok): Traders in capital Kabul say the prices of food and non-food items have increased due to no transfer of money to foreign countries through banks, asking the government to resolve the problem.

On the other hand, Da Afghanistan Bank says it plans to provide more facilities in cross-border transfers and traders.

Zahid Zakhilwal, a trader, told Pajhwok Afghan News that they were unable to transfer their money to all parts of the country.

He said, “The United States sent a letter to the Afghan government that Afghan banks could transfer money, but so far the banks have not been allowed to do so.”

He added that the reason behind increasing prices in the Afghan market were restrictions on money transfer despite the fact that the afghani had soared against the US dollar.

Mohammad BazGhairat, head of Al-Badr Company in Kabul, said that money transfer service was currently totally suspended.

“With the suspension of money transfers, the price of food in the market has reached its peak, if this problem is solved it would also resolve traders problems up to 50 percent,” he said.

He added that previously money transfers inside and outside Afghanistan were normal but it was currently inactive. He called on the government to address their problems.

Mukhlis Ahmad, head of Tawsif Limited Company, said that all private banks previously transferred money, but now only Afghanistan International Bank (AIB) transfers money to only food companies.

“Previously, money was transferred at a charge of 0.25 percent, but now the charge has been increased to 2.5 percent,” he said.

The main problem is that  traders are not able to transfer money directly to foreign countries, they first should transfer it to Dubai and then to foreign countries, he said.

However, Mohammad Saber Momand, a spokesman for the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), told Pajhwok that the bank is trying to define needed regulations for money transfer.

For cross-border money transfer and to prevent humanitarian crisis and facilitate trade,DAB prepared and approved the guideline for international money transfer in October last year, he said.

Momand said there are currently no restrictions on imports of essential items to the country after the US’ license.

DAB tries to provide more facilities for cross-border money transfers and trade, he added.

mds/ma