Economic Growth & Governance Initiative Q4 Quarterly Report July—September 2011

EGGI's activities focused on program and provincial budgeting, tax administration, and business enabling environment. In program budgeting, EGGI supported the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in launching the 1391 budget process, which included training programs for 364 civil servants from all 57 budgetary units. The MoF also conducted provincial budgeting workshops for five Western and two Southern provinces, reaching 108 and 44 participants respectively. These workshops provided guidance on preparing development project proposals for the 1391 national budget process. In tax administration, EGGI continued to support the Medium Taxpayer Offices (MTO) in Herat and Mazar, which showed strong improvement in revenue collected and tax returns filed. Year-to-date collections totaled 143.9 million AFN and 115.6 million AFN in Herat and Mazar respectively, with Herat's collection showing an 81% increase over the same period in 2010. EGGI's assistance helped MTO tax collection and tax filing metrics to exceed quarterly targets. In business enabling environment, EGGI completed the transition of the Afghan Central Business Registry (ACBR) to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), which included the development and delivery of a new ACBR online registration application. EGGI also supported the MoCI in drafting commercial laws and regulations, and created documentation summarizing key legal perspectives. Additionally, EGGI completed the full transition of the Doing Business Better Initiative (DBBI) activities and deliverables to the MoCI Legal Directorate. In gender mainstreaming, EGGI supported five interns to secure full-time jobs and provided 10 internships to new recent female graduates in the Ministry of Economy (MoE), the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA), and EGGI's budget team. EGGI also continued to support the Medium Taxpayer Office (MTO) within the Herat Mustofiat, in partnership with another donor's tax reform program, which collected 42.5 million AFN of revenue during the quarter. Overall, EGGI's activities during the fourth quarter of 2011 contributed to the country's fiscal sustainability and private sector development, and helped to strengthen the capacity of Afghan counterparts in program and provincial budgeting, tax administration, and business enabling environment.