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Anti-graft commission probes ‘catastrophic’ customs corruption

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Anti-corruption agencies have described reports by the acting minister of finance that as much as $8 million is being embezzled by customs on a daily basis as being “catastrophic”.

The Anti-Corruption Commission says it is investigating the acting minister’s claims.

“The Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating the matter and will obtain further information from the Ministry of Finance,” said Mohammad Salim Safari, media officer at the commission.

This comes after acting finance minister Khalid Painda told MPs in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) on Wednesday that between $7 million and $8 million was not being collected daily by customs across the country.

MPs in turn accused government leadership, especially the Ministry of Finance, of being the main culprits regarding corruption in customs, and said Painda needs to stop corruption instead of complaining about it.

On Wednesday, Painda told MPs in Parliament that there are reports of corruption involving governors, police commanders, employees of the Ministry of Finance as well as members of the public.

Asked about who is behind the multi-million dollar corruption scheme, Painda was not able to give satisfactory answers, members of the administrative board of the Wolesi Jirga said.

"Instead of giving statistics, the Ministry of Finance should fight corruption and reveal the list of corrupt people," said Hujatullah Kheradmand, Deputy Secretary of the House of Representatives.

Members of the public, however, have a different view, saying that the head and leadership of the Ministry of Finance are primarily responsible for the corruption but instead they are blaming others.

President Ashraf Ghani has in the past accused the interior ministry of being at the heart of corruption in the country. But some members of the public say it appears that the ministry of finance has now taken that top spot.

In response to the scandal, the Ministry of Industry and Trade says that the smuggling of commercial goods into the country has reduced domestic production.

The Ministry says that joint efforts have been launched with the Ministry of Finance to address this challenge, and that tariffs on imported goods should be increased by 100 percent.

The private sector, on the other hand, says that domestic industrialists still do not have access to production resources.

Members of the private sector say that if the government supports the private sector, investments in the country will increase and jobs will be created.

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Iran’s non-oil exports to Afghanistan rise by 31% this solar year

Iran’s imports from Afghanistan also rose sharply, totalling over $33 million, a 192% increase in this period

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Iran's non-oil exports to Afghanistan surged by 31% in the first half of this solar year (April to September 2024), totalling over $1.77 billion.

According to Iran’s trade association in Afghanistan, both the value and volume of non-oil exports to Afghanistan saw substantial growth. 

Statistics provided by the association indicate that nearly 560,000 tons of Iranian goods, including iron, steel, cement, eggs, and potatoes, were exported to Afghanistan during this period.

Iran’s imports from Afghanistan also rose sharply, totalling over $33 million, a 192% increase in this period. 

The primary exports to Iran included barley, corn, peanuts, and chilies.

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Private sectors of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan sign contracts worth $100 million

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Private sectors of Afghanistan and Kazakhstan have signed contracts worth $100 million during the visit of an Afghan delegation to Almaty recently, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) announced on Thursday.

The agreements include the export of more than 2,000 tons of dried fruit, the export of fresh fruit, including pomegranates, and the export of cotton, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, said on X.

Mujahid said that the Islamic Emirate delegation during its recent visit to Kazakhstan signed a "road map of cooperation between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan in the fields of trade, industry, mining, energy, logistics, agriculture, telecommunications, health, higher education and humanitarian aid.”

He said Kazakhstan also assured that it would provide more facilities for the transit of Afghan goods to China and other countries through Kazakhstan.

The allocation of an area "as a logistics center for Afghan goods" in the port of Khargos was also part of the agreement between the two sides to facilitate the unloading and loading of Afghan traders' goods.

The spokesman of the Islamic Emirate also said that Kazakhstan will participate in the construction of the Torghundi-Herat, Kandahar-Spin Boldak and Mazar-e-Sharif-Kharlachi railway projects.

Mujahid added that Kazakhstan will also participate in the establishment of a trade and transit center in Herat province, which will be used to store and finance trade and transit goods. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has agreed to establish permanent expo centers for the sale of Afghan goods in various cities of Kazakhstan.

It is worth mentioning that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate led by Nooruddin Azizi, Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, participated in the three-day exhibition of Afghanistan's domestic products, which was launched on October 21 in Almaty.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce recently announced that 23 tons of pomegranates from Kandahar province were exported to Almaty through the port of Torghundi.

 

 

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China resumes direct rail trade with Afghanistan

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China resumed its direct freight rail services to Afghanistan on Thursday when a train loaded with goods left Nantong city in Jiangsu province.

The train, carrying commercial goods in 55 wagons, is heading for the northern Hairatan border in Balkh province, Yue Xiaoyong, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Special Representative for Afghanistan, said in a post on X.

Nantong is a central hub of the Belt and Road Initiative and is located north of Shanghai.

The resumption of the rail line was marked at a formal ceremony on Thursday with Yue and Bilal Karimi, the Afghan Ambassador to China, in attendance.

This comes after China recently announced plans to lift customs tariffs on Afghan exports to China by the end of this year, further strengthening trade ties between the two nations.

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