The Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Wednesday said that 47.5 percent of the next fiscal budget will be provided from domestic revenue.  
 
According to MoF, the annual income of the government has increased to 50 billion Afs and the growth will help Afghanistan to lessen its budgetary dependency on foreign aid in the years to come. 
 
MoF spokesman said that this year the government has also managed to perform better in terms of spending its development budget, saying so far 51 percent of the development budget has been spent. 
 
In this year’s national budget, the balance of revenue received by the government is estimated at 150 billion Afs, said MoF spokesman Ajmal Hamid Abdul Rahimzai, adding that the government was also successful in introducing an  electronic tax collection system at customs and is undertaking comprehensive efforts against corruption. 
 
“In the 1395 (2016) fiscal budget, our contribution was 30 percent, but this year our contribution has increased to 36 percent, but in the 1397 (2018) fiscal budget, our share will be around 47.5 percent, this indicates that we are moving forward towards our self-reliance goals which had committed to the nation and the international community,” said Abdul Rahimzai.   
 
Based on the statistics of the ministry of finance, over the eleven months of this year, the spending development budget has increased by 9 percent and also the ministry of finance has successfully spent 81 percent of its development budget. 
 
Rahimzai stated that next year’s budget has been outlined in line with international standards. 
 
But, lawmakers in the parliament have criticized the draft budget.
 
“I thoroughly studied the draft budget of 1397 (2018), but no project was included which is needed by the people of Khost, if the necessary amendments are not introduced in the draft budget, my vote will be negative,” said MP Mirbat Khan Mangal.
 
In a question regarding the existence of corruption in the ministry of finance particularly at customs, MoF spokesman said that the ministry so far has assessed  up to 106 cases of corruption and several MoF employees officials were also fired from their post due to corruption allegations.