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The Tax Collection and Anti-Corruption Strategy to Reform Afghanistan’s Legal Code

Afghanistan has made considerable progress in domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) over the past two decades. Afghan government has collected a total of only $10 million in total government revenue in 2020. It collected $2.4 billion, or about 12 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016. The government has focused its efforts on the simplest taxes to collect, namely, import duties, a tax referred to as the business receipts tax (BRT), and simple income taxes for both individuals and companies and for which a very simplified tax was developed for small businesses that could be paid in place of the corporate income tax (CIT) and the BRT. The Afghans implemented a new, partially rationalized duty schedule, with fewer rates and a schedule following the Harmonized System of codes for classifying traded goods to enhance transparency and fairness for the sake of import duties. On the administrative side, the Afghan government had to build both tax and customs administrations almost from scratch – developing their staff and equipping them with the tools to do their jobs which included skills, procedures, equipment, facilities, and information technology (IT). The international donor agencies took pragmatic steps in this regard by providing training, materials, and technical assistance to rebuild the Afghan Revenue Department (ARD), design new procedures, construct or refurbish facilities, implement IT-based solutions, and extend ARD’s reach to all of the country’s provinces. Experts from different countries helped the Afghan government draft new laws and regulations, prepare manuals, and train staff to implement them. Although a considerable progress has been made, Afghanistan still faces many challenges -- to strengthen its tax and customs administrations, root out corruption, and facilitate taxpayer compliance. The long desired value added tax (VAT) has been enacted into law and is planned for implementation starting in 2020.