KABUL: In violation of President Ashraf Ghani’s warning, unprocessed marble also known as white gold of Afghanistan continues to be smuggled abroad.
During his visit to Herat about two years back, President Ghani had promised taking serious steps to prevent the export and smuggling of unprocessed marble from Herat.
At a meeting with businessmen, he had said: “I have received a report about the sale of Herat’s marble in Iran. I warn you against selling Afghanistan’s raw marble. I will close any company committing this illegal act.”
However, local officials, civil society activists and industrialists in Herat are concerned at the smuggling of raw marble. They say most of the stone is trafficked in raw and semi-processed form to Iran.
Mohammad Anwar Rahmani, the Herat customs head, confirmed to Pajhwok Afghan News the smuggling of Herat marble. He said the stone was transported through Taliban controlled areas or other routes where government’s writ was weak.
“If the smuggling of raw and half-processed marble is prevented, the customs revenues will go up by 15 percent. We suffer a loss of 50 million afs annually due to the smuggling of marble to Iran and other countries.”
According to him, Herat customs department annually collects 20 million afs from marble exports through the Islam Qala crossing.
Several public representatives from Herat allege that some government officials and Wolesi Jirga members aid the smuggling of marble.
Massouda Korkhi, a legislator, told Pajhwok: “Herat’s raw marble is smuggled abroad by people having influence in the parliament and within the government.” However, she did not name any individual.
Officials of the Herat Industrialists’ Union claim marble smuggling has resulted in the closure of marble factories in the province.
Hameedullah Khadim, head of the union, said about 45 marble-processing factories were operational until recently in the Herat industrial park. But due to the absence of marble stone, most of the factories have ceased to function.
“The first-degree, high-quality marble, before being processed, is smuggled by mafia to Iran and other countries. Thus the local factories are supplied with the 2nd and 3rd-degree marble for processing.”
Several factory heads complained of a shortage of the stone. Since the beginning of current year, Herat miners worked for only three months.
Toryalai Ghawsi, the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) deputy head for Herat and owner of a factory, said due to the shortage of marble, he had suffered a 55 million afs loss.
“In the past, the government would extract the stone and place it at factory owners’ disposal. But currently, the market is free and the good-quality stone is not supplied to factories and the government pays no heed. Earlier, about 45 factories were active in this sector, but now the number has dropped to 20 to 25 factories.” Ghawsi pointed to four kinds of marble excavated in the province –top marble, 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree marbles but the factories were given the low-quality stone for processing.
“We once had 52 workers but now we have only 15. If we work 24 hours consistently, we produce 400 square metres. And in 48 hours, our production reaches 1,500 square metres.”
Currently, each square metre of processed top-quality marble is priced at 800 to 800 afs, the 1st degree marble at around 500 to 600 afs, the 2nd degree at 300 afs and the 3rd degree at 200 afs in Herat markets. “We obtain one tonne of raw and irregular top marble for 8,000 afs, one tonne of 1st degree for 5,650 afs, the same quantity of 2nd degree for 3,500. But the 2nd-degree marble is sold for only 300 afs.”
While stressing the construction of a bridge on Harirod River in Chasht-i-Sharif for resolving people’s problems, he asked the government to monitor the activities of factories and miners to ensure the extracted marble was distributed in a just manner to factory owners.
Ghawsi claimed factories in Herat had high capacity and advanced euipment, which could process marble in a standard way. But Abdul Sami Tokhi, an extracting company owner, said Herat factories lacked the ability to process marble stone because they only prepared it in a semi-processed form for export.