Written question asked by Nick Harvey (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 25 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 October 2006. It was answered by Hilary Benn (Labour) on Wednesday, 1 November 2006 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Afghanistan

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will provide a breakdown of how the $30 million generated in toll payments per annum for the use of the Kabul to Kandahar highway has been allocated in Afghanistan.

Answer: In the first four months of operation the road toll scheme has raised a total of $1.4 million. Current estimates are that this will reach $6.9 million for the 2006-07 budget year. Road users purchase a sticker that covers the use of four major roads around Kabul. This makes it difficult to calculate the precise share of the total attributable to the use of the Kabul—Kandahar road. Roughly 15 per cent. of the sales come from vendors working on that route but there also are likely to be users purchasing stickers in central Kabul and other locations.The money raised from the road toll scheme is not earmarked for any specific purposes but rather contributes to the Government of Afghanistan’s core budget spending. In last year’s budget, spending on development was 63 per cent. of total expenditures with security and governance at 30 per cent. and 7 per cent. respectively. Within development spending the largest areas of expenditure were agriculture and rural development at 21 per cent. and infrastructure and natural resources at 14 per cent.

Secondary information