The Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring Committee (MEC) on Saturday said that despite the allocation of millions of afs to promote the e-filing System for taxpayers to the Ministry of Finance, 95 percent of the system is not functioning.

MEC officials said that in order to curb corruption in the taxation process, the Afghan government should ensure the e-filing system is working in the money generating entities, including the Ministry of Finance.

But experts have been saying that some employees of the Ministry of Finance are deliberately switching off the system to pave the way for the embezzlement of tax revenues.

The Ministry of Finance has said that there are issues only with the software not the system.

The e-filing system for taxpayers was begun in the Ministry of Finance eleven years ago, and was intended to prevent the embezzlement of tax revenues.

“Our findings indicate that 95 percent of the system is not working, we recommended previously to replace the system to help prevent corruption,” said Maiwand Rouhani, the head of MEC’s Secretariat.

Meanwhile, officials at the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) has said that a lack of an e-filing system for taxpayers has created major grounds for corruption.

“We spend millions of afs for installing a system, we are unable to use this system, such a move itself creates condition for embezzlement of the revenues,” said Sayed Zaman Hashemi, the head of ACCI.

“90 percent of hardware and software of the system had gone out of date, in 1398 (2019) and later the World Bank provided some devices,” said Shamroz Khan Masjidi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.

 Officials at the Ministry of Finance have constantly pushed for the e-filing system for taxpayers in the Finance Ministry, to help increase revenue and prevent embezzlements, but no practical action was taken to ensure a full implementation of the plan.