ZARANJ: The revenue of the custom department of southwestern Nimroz province has reached nearly three billion afghanis during the first three months of the current solar year, indicating a 50 percent increase.
Deputy Director of Customs Abdul Ghani Turabitold Pajhwok Afghan News the revenue had gone up by one billion afghanis during the first quarter of the current year, comparedwith the corresponding period of last year.
He identified the installation of a new system, an all-out campaign against corruption and prevention of capital flight as the main reasons for the revenue hike.
The amount collected in the first three months this year worked out at 2.93 billion afghanis, compared with 1.93 billion afghanis during the same period in 2015, he explained.
A fuel trader, Haji Sattar, said Iran’s Bandar Abbas port was 300 kilometrescloser to Zaranjthan to Islam Qala. Therefore, he argued, traders used the shorter route to transfer their goods in time.
However, he complained about high taxes. “The tax was jacked up on fuel imports several years ago; the customsdepartment charges $600 on each tonne of fuel, compared with $150 elsewhere in the world.”
He asked the government to bring down the tax on fuel imports and thereby incentivise the business.
Mohammad Ewaz, another trader,grumbled about the absence of high tonnage scales and warehouses, saying the Silk Bridge, connecting Nimroz with Iran, also lacked the capacity to absorb traffic.
“We want Iran to keep its promiseto construct another bridge to support more traffic,” he said.
Turabisaidhis department had suggested the purchase of 50 acres of land to expand the custom warehousesand other facilities.The creation of cold storage has also been suggested.
