Financial reforms and the increase in national revenue are critical commitments by the National Unity Government (NUG) to the international community that will come under review at the upcoming Brussels Summit.

However, the ministry of finance said it is optimistic about financial reforms and the increase in national revenue, but a number of economic analysts have criticized government for not making more of an effort to increase this revenue.

The International Monetary Fund determined that 132 billion Afghani, 18 billion Afghani more than last year, was needed to meet this year's target to go towards the national budget.

This is 30 percent of the overall budget that is made up of revenue from government and international donors.

Funding profitable projects, identifying new-revenue sources, keeping national revenue from being embezzled, establishing a new custom system and the implementation of financial reforms were promises made to the international community in recent years by the national unity government.

It is these promises that will fall under the spotlight at the October summit.

"A problem that always exists is that government cannot identify productive projects and that it does not invest funded money into projects – but the international community wants government to invest their money in productive projects," said Sayed Massoud, an economic lecturer at Kabul university.

Meanwhile, officials at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry have complained about the current system in terms of tariff and tax collection. They have said the process has not been standardized and that a vast amount of revenue ends up in the pockets of private individuals.

Atiqullah Nusrat, head of the executive board of the chamber said: "Traders are not concerned about paying more tax, but are worried about the methods of paying these taxes. These methods are not fair and have lots of problems. We discussed this with government to find a solution."

However, officials from the ministry of finance said the Afghan government has done its best to fulfill its commitments to its donors and other international financial institutions.

The spokesman for the ministry of finance, Ajmal Hamid, said figures show that national revenue collected in the first six months of this year increased by two percent compared to the first six months of last year.

"Afghan government tries to cover most of its national budget through increasing and better collection of national revenue. We hope to have more revenue than the target determined by the International Monetary Fund and that we attend Brussels showing good achievements," said Ajmal Hamid, a spokesman for the ministry of finance.