KABUL (Pajhwok Afghan News) — The Afghan Central Bank chief has linked the depreciation of afghani to the smuggling of dollars and has warned of further depreciation if the foreign currency’s smuggling is not stopped. Last year in July one US dollar was sold against some 68 afghanis while currently one dollar cost 72.40 afghanis.

Khalilullah Sediqui, Da Afghanistan Bank head, was summoned on Monday to the Wolesi Jirga to brief lawmakers about the depreciation of afghani against dollar. Wolesi Jirga speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said the depreciation of afghani had a negative impact on common people’s living and the authorities concerned particularly security forces should act and stop the smuggling of dollars out of the country.

According to Sediqiue, insecurity, economic and political instability and smuggling of dollars from the country were reasons behind depreciation in the value of the afghani. He said dollars were recently smuggled out of the country via Islam Qala dry port in Herat, Hairatan Port in Balkh and via the airports in Kabul and Balkh, Farah and Nimroz provinces. After him, around 100 taxi vehicles having cross border transportation licenses were involved in the smuggling of dollars.

Sediqui said currency’s value had a direct link with domestic production of a country, adding that trade deficit remained a major factor pushing the depreciation of currency. He recalled the volume of Afghanistan’s exports stood at $500 mln last year while imports over $6.5 bln.

When asked about dissemination of dollars in the market to specific moneychangers, the Central Bank head rejected the notion and added no bidders could get more than three percent of the total amount of dollars the bank distributed to the market.