Afghan Ministry of Finance officials have reported a 90% decline in the revenue of state-owned businesses.

State-owned businesses have recorded revenue of 377mn AFN this year compared with 3.4bn AFN last year.

This brings up the old question of privatizing state-owned businesses, which was proposed by several government bodies in the past.

When it comes to comparing effectiveness of private companies and state-owned companies, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, Afghanistan’s electricity company, is the prime example of the success of privatization.

DABS has generated around 300mn AFN in revenue this year.

“When the Breshna Company was owned by the government, it had losses…But now we have considerable net revenue, and provide better services,” Tolo News quotes Breshna Company official Mirwais Alemi.

In the meantime, a number of parliamentarians have cited corruption as the cause of the decrease in revenue of state-owned businesses.