Economic analysts on Thursday warned that if the Afghan government does not pay its debts on time it will jeopardise the development of the country because it will not receive loans in the future.
Sayed Masoud, economics lecturer at Kabul University suggested that part of the problem is Afghanistan lack of understanding of the "culture of loans".
"Afghanistan still doesn't know the culture of loans. You know that in the past most of the debts that Afghanistan has been given haven't been paid back, so most of the loan providers are scared of this fact and don't lend to Afghanistan," he told TOLOnews.
Afghanistan has received billions of dollars in foreign aid which is given without any expectation from the donor that it will be repaid. However a loan has strict obligations on the repayment deadlines and interest charged.
Saifuddin Sayhoon, economic lecturer at Kabul university, said that much of Afghanistan's reconstruction will depend on loans in the future, and so an established system for repaying loans is important.
"Afghanistan needs to borrow for the reconstruction of its nationwide projects and infrastructure. There ought to be an established capacity in this so that it can undertake whatever reconstruction projects there might be. Unfortunately it isn't like this," he said.
The analysts said that Afghanistan has already missed deadlines on some of its debt payments. However, the Ministry of Finance rejected the claims saying that since 2002 repayments have been met and will be able to be met into the future.
Finance deputy minister Mohammad Mustafa Mastoor said there will be sufficient funds in the government treasury to pay the loans which remain.
"The next government of Afghanistan will be able to repay all the loans that the Afghan government has borrowed in the past years because most of these debts have little interest with an unlimited pay time," he said Thursday.
According to the government budget, Afghanistan has asked for loans of US$432 million from the World Bank, US$758.6 million from Asian Development Bank, US$68 million from Islamic Development Bank, and US$80 million from Saudi Development Bank. Most of the funds have been received.
Afghanistan needs to build the trust of lenders and spend loans wisely on infrastructure projects if it wants to rely on future loans from the major lenders, the analysts said.