In a meeting of print media, audio media, news agencies, and the officials of journalists support unions with President Ghani yesterday, the president issued an order relieving media tax penalties.
The federation of journalists and media had frequently raised this issue with the government officials and the issue was discussed during the last summit of the joint committee of media and the government which was held last week under the chairmanship of the second vice-president.
According the information provided by government agencies, the due media tax penalties are approximately 110 million Afghanis.
The President’s order is explicit on media tax rebates and requires them to pay it in instalments: “in accordance with article 12 of tax rebates law, those audio media, broadcasting companies, and news agencies which have failed to pay their taxes shall do so by monthly instalments in maximum seven years.”
According to this order, all tax penalties for the failure in tax payments has been relieved for the media outlined in article first of this order.
In response to the federation’s demand that media are legally tax exempt, however the ministry of finance requires them to pay taxes; the President said: “there’s a contradiction between media laws and tax laws. I prefer the media laws in this regards and I shall solve this matter by issuing an order.”
According to the President, if this proceedings require the amendment of the tax laws, the government of national unity is willing to do so.
A number of media are also due to pay their license fee. Moreover, there’s no reference to tax rebates and tax penalties of visual media. When the issue was raised to the President, he tasked the deputy finance minister for tax revenues to form a committee of five-six members including the representatives of the federation.
Based on the President’s statements, the committee shall review all the issues concerning media tax rebates and penalties and shall submit a single proposal to the office of the President in order to solve this problem.
On the behavior of his administration towards media in contrast to the previous administrations, the President said: “before, your dialogue with the government was like talking to deaf; but now, there’s a listening ear to hear your problems and solving them.”
The representatives from journalist support unions and the representatives from print media, radio stations, and news agencies spoke in this meeting. They welcomed the relief of tax penalties and expressed their hope that the government fulfill its other promises regarding media and journalists problems as well.
