KABUL: The minister of finance says the smuggling of gold is an ongoing problem and measures will be taken to fight the issue.
The Ministry of Finance with the help of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has seized 45kgs of gold that was due to be smuggled out of the country, the Finance Minister Eklil Hakimi said. Hakimi said the gold was worth at least $2 million USD. However, he did not give more details about it during a press conference on Friday.
“We found the gold which was being smuggled. The value of the gold was at least $2 million dollars,” Hakimi said.
“The issue is that this trend continued for the past several years and we will give you more details (in the future). SIGAR helped us in this respect.”
According to him, the gold has been handed over to the state-owned Central Bank for safe-keeping and based on an agreement signed at the Senior Officials Meeting in Kabul last week, SIGAR will cooperate with the bank in this respect.
He said “it was 45kgs of gold and we gave it to the Central Bank with the help of SIGAR”.
Meanwhile, the finance minister said they have outlined a draft for three-year budget for the first time.
“In the next year, for the first time, we will provide you with a three-year budget which will include both the normal and the development budgets,” he said.
