Over 193.9 billion afs revenue collected last year: MoF

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has collected over 193.9 billion afs of revenue in the last solar year, 588,000 imports, 189,000 exports and 53,000 transit shipments conducted during the period, an official said on Sunday.

Addressing reporters in the Government Media and Information Centre (GMIC) Mufti Abdul Matin Saeed, general director of the country’s Custom Offices, said last year nationwide Custom Offices generated 115 billion afs, the General Revenue Department generated 82.4 billion afs, ministries and independent administrative unites 42.1 billion afs, Tax Payer Department 21.8 billion afs, smaller Tax Payers Unit 2.7 billion afs and the Investigation Department generated 1.7 billion afs.

The total generated revenue for the last year is 193.3 billion afs which is 37 percent higher compared to the previous year, he added.

He said Referring to the country’s import, he said last year over 588,000 shipments of import accounted for 599.2 billion afs, including 15.9 billion afs commercial item, took place.

Mufti Saeed said most of the imported items were fuel and food items imported from Pakistan and Iran and some other countries.

Referring to the export items, he said a total of 189.88 shipment of export worth 170.43 billion afs conducted last year. This included over 5.5 billion afs of commercial goods, he said.

According to saeed 63 percent of the export items were coal exported to Pakistan and the remaining items sent to Turkey, India, Uzbekistan, China and other countries.

He said last year a total 53,679 transit trade shipment had been conducted, the total weight of this shipment was over 1.5 million tonnes.

Nasratullah Mahmood, Treasury Department head of the MoF, said general and development budget for last year was 239 billion afs and 81 percent of the budget was spent, adding that the ministry through its anti-corruption efforts stopped budget deficit of 43 billion afs.

He said  budget for the current solar year —1402— was also drafted and sent to the leadership of the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ (IEA) leadership for endorsement.

Merajuddin Mohammad Meraj, deputy operational head of revenue, said last year over three billion tonnes of coal exported through which 14.60 billion afs revenue generated.

He said expansion of working hours from 16 to 14, simplification of transit guarantees process, decision regarding the increase and decrease of 198 trade items, introduction of national codes, provision of facilities in trade and transit and waving off all tax penalties were major steps the ministry taken to improve trade and commerce.

He said in line with the directives of the IEA leadership import duty on 326 items such as wheat, cooking oil, rice and others had been decreased from 50 to 70 percent to ensure public access to these commodities in a fair rate.

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