The government should remain accountable for the alleged corruption committed in telecommunication service tax, the lawmakers and analysts stress, saying the government’s quietude about the issue is extremely worrisome. They call on the government to seriously investigate the major graft case, and bring to justice all individuals and institutions involved in it. Aryan Yoon, a female lawmaker, says: "The government should explain where the telecom tax money went? If it is stolen, who stole it? If not, why the government cannot provide explanation to the people for the collected tax?" Yoon strongly believed there was high-level corruption in the 10 % telecom service tax imposed on mobile phone users, and the lowest echelons of government did not have any role in the case, so that was why government leaders were tightlipped about it. Abdul Wali Wahab, a political expert, said the government was quiet about the issue because it did not have a satisfactory response to the people, and wanted to whitewash the scandal like other major cases of corruption, urging the world to press Afghan government to be accountable to its people. Having doubts even about the system on which the government has been working to transparently collect the telecom tax, a famous Afghan technical expert, Noor Rahman Liwal, has claimed in an op-ed article that the Call Detail Record (CDR) not only could not curb corruption in the telecom tax collection, but would also professionalize and entrench it because the telecom service providers would have full control of it, and its transparency was not guaranteed. Refusing to declare its stance on the corruption in telecommunication tax for now, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said they would comment on the issue in the future.
Meanwhile, the acting minister of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT) acknowledged there was no special system in place to collect the 10 percent tax on mobile top cards, but it was being developed. Shahzad Gul Aryobi told reporters in Kabul last week that all necessary arrangements, including provision of equipment, were made and the system was expected to become operational in the next four months. This comes as Wolesi Jirga suspended the Telecommunication Tax Law last week based on which 10 percent fee was imposed on mobile phone users. The lawmakers said the MoCIT had promised to create an electronic tax collection system in six months to ensure transparency, but the system was yet to be rolled out even after two years.
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