Business
Senate Summons Senior Officials over Smuggling of Dollars
Afghan senators on Sunday summoned senior officials of the central bank, interior ministry, and customs department over smuggling of U.S. dollar from Afghanistan to foreign countries.
Mohammad Alam Izadyar, Deputy Speaker of the House claimed that widespread corruption exists in the customs department. He further said that millions of dollars have been taken out of the country that has affected the Afghani currency.
Mohammad Azim Qooyash, head of the Senate finance and budget committee expressed his concerns regarding money laundering and urged the government to prevent such efforts.
Speaking at the session, General Ali Mast Mohmand, a senior official in the Afghan ministry of interior said that police have seized more than one billion foreign currency last year while individuals wanted to smuggle it out of the country. Gen. Mohmand blamed open borders for the illegal smuggling of foreign currencies.
At the same event, Khalil Sediq, the governor of Afghanistan’s central bank said that based on the law individuals can carry up to $20,000 with themselves and there are people with multiple-visas who are daily commuting to our neighboring countries with this amount of dollars.
Abdullah Raqeebi, deputy minister of customs and revenue, said that Afghanistan is having a 900-kilometer border with Iran but the U.S. dollar is still smuggled to Iran despite the government efforts.
This comes as the price of the U.S. dollar has dramatically increased in Afghanistan during the last year.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said Thursday it has signed cooperation agreements with ten institutions to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Nooruddin Azizi, Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, said: “In the implementation of projects, we must pay special attention to our activities and actions and try to make useful use of the projects according to the requirements and benefit the beneficiaries.”
These ten institutions are to present their projects, the total value of which is around over $1.1 million. The projects will be carried out in Kabul, Baghlan, Ghor, Herat, Logar, Nangarhar, Balkh, Badakhshan and Jawzjan provinces and provide direct jobs for about 1,000.
To date, the ministry has signed MoUs for 72 projects in total, collectively valued at about $53.6 million.
These agreements have been signed with domestic and foreign companies for the establishment of small and medium-sized businesses.
In accordance with the principles and laws of the Islamic Emirate and prioritizing the implementation of projects for immigrants and returnees and internally displaced people, the ministry said 635,865 people will benefit through jobs directly and over 4.3 million will benefit indirectly in 25 provinces once these projects are implemented.
The National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) confirmed Tuesday that in the last month of solar year 1402, (March 2024) Afghanistan’s exports totaled $141.1 million and imports totaled $789.6 million.
This was down from $174 million for exports in the same period in 1401. However, imports increased by $99.2 million in 1402, up from $690.4 million.
Most exports in the last month of 1402 went to Pakistan, India and the United Arab Emirates, while in the last month of 1401 exports went to Pakistan, India and China.
The Ministry of Interior said the governor of Herat province Islam Jar met with Alim Khan Yasin Gildaye, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Afghanistan, to discuss various issues around trade.
According to the ministry, the two sides discussed the expansion of trade facilities, increasing the volume of trade exchanges between traders of the two countries, reducing customs tariffs, solving the challenges of traders and issuing visas to them.
The Afghanistan-Kazakhstan Chamber of Commerce has been opened in Herat in order to facilitate and increase trade between the two countries.
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