KABUL - The state-run Afghan Film Department on Wednesday blasted the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for failing to pay out the department's budget.
The Afghan Film Department officials claimed that the lack of a budget has prevented them from being able to shoot new movies and TV series.
The budget is $220,000 USD, which was supposed to be allocated for film production costs, said chairman of the Afghan Film Department Ibrahim Arefi Kaihan.
But, the finance ministry has hit back at the allegation, saying so far the ministry has not received notification from the ministry of information and culture to pay out the budget.
"We do not have any problem to allocate budget and bring about other financial facilities; our expectation is that the honorable ministry of information and culture discusses the Afghan film issue with us," said Ajmal Hamid Abdul Rahimzai, spokesman to MoF.
The Afghan movie industry has been hard hit over the past few years. Even popular cinema venues in Kabul have either been totally destroyed or changed into commercial business centers.
Eighteen cinemas were once found in Kabul – but now only a handful are still in business.
"We have movie shows from eight o'clock in the morning until six in the afternoon, but fans are few," said Mohammad Hashim Haidari.
"The culture of watching movies has declined, but cinema is a good platform to revive this culture," said Abdul Saboor Kahkashan, an employee of Kahkashan Cinema.
The majority of films screened at these cinemas are foreign movies.
According to the Afghan Film Department, the cinema industry has struggled tremendously in the past few years due to a lack of financial assistance and government support.
The department says it has reduced the number of its employees from 240 to 70 people.
"The ministry of finance is responsible to provide us the budget, we are a state run association; if the high level authorities permit it, then there are some uneducated authorities in the lower levels who in-fact do not have culture and do not know what cinema really means," said Arefi.
Staff from the department said however that they still want the leaders of the national unity government to make good on their promises regarding the rejuvenation of the culture of movies in the country.
Government pledged to build 34 new cinemas in all provinces with the Afghan Film Department taking charge of these cinemas. However, Kaihan said this has not happened. (Tolonews)