Afghans have taken to social media to protest Parliament’s decision to overturn the imposition of a 10 percent tax on mobile phone users by presidential decree.
The tax, seen as a government attempt to raise revenue at a time when foreign assistance has shrunk, had received wide public support. Within two weeks of its imposition on Sep 23, a reported 78 million Afghanis (1.2 million USD) were collected from telecom users.
Afghanistan’s telecom sector has benefited from increased investment in telecommunications infrastructure. According to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, telecom networks cover almost 90 percent of the population.
There are some 24 million subscribers – a vast enough pool for the government to raise tax revenue.
However, on Oct 14, the Wolesi Jirga called the presidential decree unconstitutional. The president did not have the authority to take autonomous financial decisions, lawmakers said.
Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, speaker of the parliament, told the government to immediately terminate the tax collection.
Afghans dissatisfied with Parliament’s decision took to social media platforms with the hashtag #IWantToPayTax.
Killid interviewed Mohammad Reza Mirzayee who has a master’s degree from a Malaysian university and says people should pay taxes. He believes Parliament’s anti-tax reaction maybe because Afghans are not used to a tax culture. “It can strengthen national stability and be beneficial to both people and government,” he says. Eshaq Wakili, a resident of Bamyan, thinks the government should “first” win people’s trust by showing that taxes would be put to good use. “The government should first try to get the trust of people. Imposing a tax on telecom users is a good decision,” he says.
Parliament’s Position
Lawmakers decided that the presidential decree on tax was against Article 79 of the Constitution. It gives government the authority to use the presidential route in urgent matters when Parliament is on vacation. However, financial affairs related to the budget are outside the purview of this article.
Qais Hasan, a Member of Parliament (MP) who leads the parliamentary commission on communication and transport says the president cannot autonomously rule on financial matters.
Sayed Zafar Hashemi, deputy spokesperson to the president held a press conference after Parliament’s decision. He said lawmakers had overlooked the fact that the tax was included in the government’s budget for the current financial year that they had approved earlier. The president had acted on a tax that was agreed upon by both the executive and legislature, he said. The government will resend the draft law to Parliament, he added.
Transparency concerns
Will the tax collected from telecom users reach the government and be put to good use? Some Afghans fear the system lacks transparency.
Abdul Khaleq, a civil society activist in Bamyan told Killid that if the government can prevent embezzling of public money, people would be happy to pay the tax. “We hope that the 10 percent tax on us will not be embezzled like international aid,” he says.
Minister of Communication and Information Technology Abdul Razaq Wahidi dismisses these fears and says the money will go into the government treasury.
Subscribers want the government to force mobile phone operators to reduce charges. Engineer Hanif Jawed who has travelled to other countries in the region says phone and internet charges are most expensive here. “We are happy to be taxed but we are not satisfied with the quality of services provided by telecom operators,” he says.
Communications minister of Wahidi has promised a 20 percent reduction in internet fares. He believes the tax on telecom users will assist in building self-sufficiency in Afghanistan.
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