KABUL (SW): A member of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) has claimed that corruption at the Hairatan port in Balkh province and Aqina port in Faryab province have been marred with corruption more than in the defunct Kabul Bank.
This was revealed by Mohammad Naeem Lalai, a member of the WJ who led a house committee to investigate the state of affair at these ports. Briefing the house about the findings, Lalai said millions of afghanis have been embezzled in shipping petroleum products from neighboring Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan provinces.
He mentioned that since the fuel supply for NATO forces is exempted from many taxes, importers have used this excuse to falsely import fuel for sale in the market in NATO’s name and have evaded taxes worth millions afn.
I have brought bags full of evidences, frauds committed at Hairatan and Aqina ports are complex and have embezzled more than in the Kabul Bank scam, he said. The WJ claimed to share documents with the members in the next session of the house.
Meanwhile, Abdul Zaher Qader, Deputy Speaker of the WJ directed the house committees for home security, defense and investigation to candidly probe these claims. Qadeer noted that the issue has been raised in the Masharano Jirga (upper house) on a number of occasion that traders are using NATO’s name for importing petroleum products and then sell in on inflated prices in the open market.
ENDS