Controversy surrounds Central Bank’s payout to govt.

KABUL ( AT News): Sources close to government say that the government has demanded 10 billion Afs from Central Bank as it has faced lack of money to pay employees.

Analysts say that there is a difference between the government and Central Bank, with the latter saying it had not cleared accounts to see if it had got profit, KabulNews reported on Sunday.

The analysts on Sunday said that money gained from taxes and revenues should be spent according to ordinary and development budgets, while the government had put the amounts on non-national and operative issues.

Some lawmakers reject president’s authority to take money from Central Bank without parliament’s approval.

Neither the Central Bank nor ministry of finance has commented.

The government had earlier taken 15 billion Afs from the Central Bank to pay employees and for other expenditures. Now it wants 10 billion more Afs.

The Central Bank held a meeting on Sunday to discuss government’s demand, but details of the meeting were not shared with the media.

Analysts say that the Central Bank’s reserve was 180 million dollars when Taliban’s government was collapsed in a 2001 US invasion. But more money was poured to the reserve during Hamid Karzai’s government (2001-2014) and the reserve had 7.5 billion dollars when Karzai’s successor Ashraf Ghani took office.