KABUL (Pajhwok) — The acting mayor on Saturday said the Kabul municipality was yet to collect over 2 bln afghanis (afs) in tax on services from some people and government departments over the past one decade.

Speaking at a meeting to assess the municipality’s annual income collection process, Abdul Ahad Wahid said: “Nearly 2.225 bln afs in taxes on services including cleanliness fee have not been paid by some companies, NGOs, ministries and other government and public institutions.” He added the municipality department had tried to collect the unpaid taxes, but failed.

The mayor said Onyx company had to pay 415 mln afs in unpaid tax, Ricky Global 700 mln afs, Gulbahar Business Association 154 mln afs and government departments more than 470 mln afs since a decade. He said the issue had been shared with the Presidential Palace and the Chief of Executive Officer (CEO) office and would be taken up with the Cabinet.

Between October, 2014 and October 2015, the municipality could collect only 2,874,172,000 afs out of 3,633,750,000 afs in unpaid taxes. The municipality’s income had decreased by 21 percent as a result of the delay in approval of draft laws on municipalities, taxes for city services and rules regarding construction violations.

Some people who had usurped land in posh Sherpur locality of Kabul were yet to make the payment, adding nearly 160 mln afs which were yet to be collected from the land’s occupants in Sherpur, urging the government to take urgent steps in this regard.