The Ministry of Finance is "ignoring" a decree from the Council of Ministers that waived customs taxes for 3,000 Afghan commercial containers previously stranded in Karachi, the Afghanistan Advisory Board of National Entrepreneurs said Saturday.
Thousands of Afghan commercial containers remained stranded for three months at the Karachi port, forcing Afghan businessmen to pay $50 million in demurrage fees to the Pakistani government. The containers were released about 20 days ago, and Afghanistan's Council of Ministers ordered that these containers be exempt from Afghan customs taxes.
But the exemption isn't being carried out, say Afghan businessmen.
"The Economic Committee of the Council [of Ministers] approved that we are exempt from paying [customs] taxes, but the Finance Ministry is ignoring this approval and has stopped our containers," said Rahmuddin Haji Agha, director of the executive board of the Board of Entrepreneurs.
The Finance Ministry says the exemption goes against Afghanistan's costumes law.
"We act according to the law. Nobody is exempt from paying taxes. If [the Council of Ministers] decided on an exemption, it was probably because of a lack of knowledge," Finance Ministry Adviser Najibullah Manili said.
Meanwhile, over 2000 containers full of foodstuff recently released from Karachi remain stranded at customs check points at Kabul, Kandhar and Nangarhar.