JALALABAD - The provincial government has so far collected more than 16.26 billion afghanis in revenue during the first 10 months of the ongoing solar year, showing 931 million afghanis increase over last year.
Nangarhar Governor Shah Mahmod Miakhel told Pajhwok Afghan News that controlling mafia groups in departments was major factor behind the surge in revenue.
He said last year during the same period Nangarhar revenue had increased by nearly one billion afghanis despite some problems in customs.
“The revenue would have further increased had these problems not occurred”, he added.
He said 15,332,798,097 afghanis had been collected in revenue during 10 months of last year compared to 16,263,900,274 afghanis this year.
Considering these figures, the revenue of Nangarhar has increased by 931,111,178 afghanis this year, he said, adding that the main reason behind the revenue surge in was removing mafia from revenue offices.
However, he said more than 40 percent of revenue was still not collected and there was need for a mechanism and a system to resolve the problem.
“If officers work honestly and there are activate scanners and high tonnage scales, it would help further increase revenue. There is no accurate statistics, but 40 percent of revenue on national level is not collected,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Navid Basharyar, Nangarhar customs director, said that their revenue had increased by multifold after their 24-hour activity in Torkham gate.
“I have offered many suggestions to the ministry since coming here, we have ordered a scanner that would help bring transparency and accelerate our work,” he added.
Parwaiz Ali, Nangarhar Canal Office head, said their revenue also increased after Afghan forces cleared many areas of Taliban militants.
He said their office’s revenue increased from 15 million afghanis to 70 million afghanis.
“The reason behind increase in the revenue is collection of taxes from areas where Taliban had control in the past but now government controls them.” (Pajhwok)