80 pc of Credit Card’s Tax Wasting: MPs
The Afghan parliament called on the minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology to clarify the collection of 10 percent tax from credit cards.
The Afghan parliament called on the minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology to clarify the collection of 10 percent tax from credit cards.
The representatives stated that the process of collecting 10 percent credit cards tax is not transparent, stressing that the people’s money goes to the pocket of the telecommunication companies due to the lack of supervision by the government.
According to them, 80 percent of the collected money goes to the pocket of high-level government officials; while only 20 percent goes to the state treasury.
However, the minister of the telecommunication and Information Technology rejected the claim, emphasizing that the ministry has collected close to 10 billion Afghanis from 13 million active SIM cards over the past three years, which is currently available at the “Da Afghanistan” bank.
Some MPs named a personal “bank account” which 80 percent of the credit cards tax goes in it and only 20 percent sent to the official treasury of the government.
“80 percent of the collected money is paid to a specific bank account and only 20 percent is paid to the government treasury,” said Zakia Sangin, an MP. However, Ms. Sangin did not give a specific explanation about the account and that who is the owner of the bank account.
Meanwhile, Dr. Saljoqi, an MP also said that currently there are 17 million active SIM cards in the country that most of them are not registered.
“The collection of tax from all unregistered sim cards is corrupt,” Mr. Saljoqi added. “the continued lack of transparency and reliability, is the continuation of theft and corruption which it reduces the people’s trust in the government”.
Yet, Qais Hasan, the member of the communication commission of the parliament called the finance minister the second president in the country, adding that the Finance Ministry by no means is satisfied to report the collected figure to the parliament and the people.
He continued that it will give incorrect statistics if it reports.
He pointed out that the figures provided by telecom companies and the ministry differ between billions of Afghanis. for example, if the telecommunications companies say 100 million was paid, the Finance Ministry reports 50 million.
“No one has the ability to interrogate the Finance Minister, and if anyone raises a voice against him, Hakimi will form a file against him,” Mr. Hasan added.
According to Hasan, currently, the system of collecting 10 percent tax from credit cards is politicized and no one can make the system transparent. a huge money goes to the pocket of authorities. He called on the Minister of Telecommunications not to sacrifice himself for the policies of Finance Minister and to share all the facts with the people.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Shahrizadgul Ariubi, said all technical equipment has been prepared to make the system of collecting ten percent credit cards tax transparent. Employees are also recruited
Mr. Ariubi added that 4 companies that provide this service have already been identified and their selection process underway at the National Procurement Office.
According to Ariubi, the lowest cost posed by the winning companies is $ 14 million. In addition to making the collection system transparent, it will also monitor telecommunication services.
He said that over the past three years, about 10 billion AFN had been collected from credit cards, asserting that in the first two months of the first year, more than 802 million afn, in the second year 2.4 billion afn, in the third year, 4.2 billion, and in the past three months of current year, more than 1.5 billion afn have been sent to the government’s treasury.
