The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has collected Afs102 billion (more than $1.2 billion) in revenues during the first six months of the current financial year.

Improvement in the revenue collection policy, introducing easy taxation system and fighting graft were among the key reasons behind the success, a spokesman of the Finance Ministry, Shamroz Khan Masjidi said.

“Based on our latest figure and information, we have gathered Afs102 billion which shows 14 percent or Afs12 billion increase compared to this period last year,” Masjidi told TOLOnews.

Previously, the Ministry of Finance officials said that issues such as corruption, tax evasion, and problems in the taxes collection were obstructing the collection of national revenues and that the government was able to collect only 35 percent of it.

From the total Afs102 Afs this year, Afs44.17 billion came from customs, Afs34.88 billion from taxes and Afs23.12 billion from non-tax revenues.

“When there is a transparent system, then revenues are collected in an authentic and a fair way and our revenues further increase in the view of the imports and exports that we have,” said Mahdi Rouhani, a spokesman for Ministry of Transportation.

“From these revenues, investment should be made in national projects which have the capacity of generating incomes and can bring benefits to the government,” said Abdul Rashid Janbaz, an economic analyst in Kabul.

Based on the national budget policy, the Ministry of Finance is responsible to collect Afs188 billion ($2.4 billion) until the end of the fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance so far has collected 54.2 percent of the target in the first six months of the year.