【英语国际】阿富汗央行将限制资金外逃

Afghanistan's central-bank governor said he will issue new currency restrictions to stem the exodus of billions of dollars in cash--some of it in stolen U.S. aid and drug money--flowing out of the country as foreign forces withdraw.

Some $4.6 billion in cash, more than the entire government budget, was taken abroad through Kabul airport alone last year, up from $2.3 billion in 2010, according to Afghan central-bank data. But even those figures 'grossly' underestimate the real extent of overall money flight, central-bank governor Noorullah Delawari said in an interview.

'We want to restrict the physical transfer of cash beyond our borders,' Delawari said. 'This transport of money does not benefit us. We want to prevent the misuse of currencies for terrorism or money laundering.'

Currently, any amount of cash can be carried through the Kabul airport, as long as the transporter makes a customs declaration. Every day, money couriers clutching suitcases full of dollars, euros, Saudi riyals and other currencies pack the flights to Dubai, many of them transferring funds on behalf of the traditional 'hawala' exchange networks.

A substantial part of that cash, officials say, is first smuggled into Kabul from Pakistan, which has more stringent currency rules.

Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest and most corrupt countries, produces more than 90% of the world's illicit opium. Its economy is largely dependent on foreign aid--billions of dollars of which U.S. investigators say have been lost to graft and misuse. The U.S. government has long been pressuring Afghanistan to crack down on money laundering and terrorism financing, pressure that has come up against resistance from entrenched interests in Kabul.

Afghan officials promised to clean up the country's financial system in 2010, when a Wall Street Journal report about large amounts of cash exiting the Kabul airport prompted the U.S. Congress to temporarily freeze American assistance to Afghanistan.

But the money flow to Dubai and other financial havens has only gathered speed as U.S. forces begin to pull out ahead of the 2014 deadline for transferring security responsibilities to the Afghan government. The unfolding drawdown has already begun to squeeze Afghanistan's economy, with property prices in Kabul plunging as Western aid projects dry up, and as many wealthy Afghans choose to squirrel their money abroad, fearing a civil war.

Delawari, a former banker at Lloyds Bank in California, was appointed in late November, after his predecessor fled Afghanistan amid a corruption investigation into the collapse of the country's biggest privately owned bank, Kabul Bank.

The new regulation Delawari is preparing to promulgate will restrict the amount of physical cash any person can transport abroad to $20,000 per trip. There would be no restrictions on transfers through the banking system, he said. 'If money is caught being transported, it will be illegal, and it will be confiscated.'

It isn't clear what immediate effect the new rules will have in Afghanistan, with well-connected drug mafias and the traditional hawala money-transfer networks certain to try evading the ban, officials say.

The proposal was met with dismay in Kabul's riverside Saray-e-Shahzada market, the hub of the nation's hawala business, where hundreds of money-changers with brick-size packs of $100 bills in their hands negotiated transactions under snow-covered umbrellas.

'How can they enact these regulations if we don't have any trustworthy banks?' wondered Najeeb Ullah Akhtary, owner of the Akhtaries hawala and president of the hawala owners' association.

Akhtary pointed to the fact that Afghanistan's largest bank, Kabul Bank, was nationalized and bailed out by the government last year after it made hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent loans to its shareholders, key among them the brothers of the country's president and vice president.

'We are a cash-based country that doesn't have any industry,' Akhtary said, predicting severe economic dislocation. 'It's not about the money-chargers, it's about the economy.'

Many hawala clients are Afghan businessmen who need quick transfers to Dubai to pay for goods they import, explained Ahmad Shah Hakimi, owner of another prominent hawala in the market and deputy chairman of the Kabul Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

'The banks can't guarantee a transfer in 24 hours, and we can,' he said. 'The money that's going out is the foreign aid money, and the money of traders.'

Yaroslav Trofimov

阿富汗央行行长说，他将出台新的外汇限制措施，以便遏制在外国部队逐步从该国撤军之际，数十亿美元现金流出境外的势头。其中有些资金是贪污挪用的美国援助资金和毒品收入。

Reuters阿富汗央行行长德拉瓦利据阿富汗央行的数据，仅去年一年，通过喀布尔机场运到海外的现金就有约46亿美元（超过了阿富汗政府的总预算），较2010年的23亿美元大幅增长。央行行长德拉瓦利(Noorullah Delawari)在接受采访时说，不过，即使是这个数字也大大低于实际的资本外逃规模。

德拉瓦利说，我们希望对携款出境加以限制，这样的资金流动对我们不利，我们希望防止外汇被用于恐怖活动或洗钱。

目前，喀布尔机场对旅客出境携带的现金数额没有限制，只要旅客在海关进行申报即可。每日，提着装满美元、欧元、沙特里亚尔和其他货币的行李箱的旅客挤满了飞往迪拜的航班，其中很多人是为传统银行体系以外的另类兑换网络“哈瓦拉”(hawala)转移资金。

官员们说，其中相当多的现金先是从巴基斯坦偷运至喀布尔的。巴基斯坦有着更为严格的外汇规定。

阿富汗是全球最贫穷、腐败最严重的国家之一。该国非法鸦片生产占了全球总额的90%以上。该国经济主要依赖外国援助，美国调查人员说，有数十亿美元的援助资金因贪污挪用不翼而飞。美国政府一直在向阿富汗施压，促使其打击洗钱及资助恐怖组织的活动。这样的施压因喀布尔根深蒂固的利益而遇阻。

2010年，阿富汗官员曾承诺将清理整顿该国的金融体系，当时《华尔街日报》的一篇有关大量现金通过喀布尔机场流向海外的报道促使美国国会暂时冻结了美国对阿富汗的援助。

不过，随着美国部队开始在2014年的期限前撤军以便将安保责任移交给阿富汗政府，流往迪拜和其他金融避风港的现金反而加快了速度。资本外逃已经开始挤压阿富汗经济，随着西方援助项目的枯竭、很多富有的阿富汗人因担心发生内战而选择将资金放到海外，喀布尔房价暴跌。

德拉瓦利曾在美国加利福尼亚州为莱斯银行(Lloyds Bank)工作，于去年11月被任命为阿富汗央行行长。他的前任在当局对阿富汗最大私有银行喀布尔银行(Kabul Bank)的倒闭进行腐败调查的过程中外逃。

根据德拉瓦利准备颁布的新规，任何人每次行程可转移至海外的实物现金数量将被限制在2万美元以内。他说，通过银行系统转移资金不会受限制。他说，如果发现有人在转移钱款，那就是非法的，将被没收。

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images在喀布尔市中心的外汇交易市场内，阿富汗货币兑换商在点钞。官员们说，不清楚新规会马上在阿富汗产生怎样的影响，因为人脉广泛的贩毒团伙和传统的哈瓦拉转账网络肯定会想办法规避这一禁令。

这个方案在喀布尔滨江地区的Saray-e-Shahzada集市引起了恐慌。这里是全国哈瓦拉业务中心，白雪覆盖的伞下，成百上千的货币兑换商拿着砖头大小的成捆100美元钞票讨价还价。

阿赫塔里斯哈瓦拉(Akhtaries)老板、哈瓦拉老板协会会长阿赫塔里(Najeeb Ullah Akhtary)问，如果我们没有任何值得信任的银行，他们怎么可以实施这些规定呢？

阿赫塔里的理由之一是，阿富汗最大银行喀布尔银行在去年被国有化、被政府救援之前，曾向股东发放了数亿美元的欺诈性贷款，这些股东当中的关键人物正是总统和副总统的兄弟。

阿赫塔里说，我们是一个以现金为基础的国家，没有任何产业；新规关系到的不是兑钱商，而是整个经济。他预计阿富汗经济会陷入严重混乱。

集市上另一知名哈瓦拉的老板哈基米(Ahmad Shah Hakimi)解释说，很多哈瓦拉客户都是需要向迪拜快速转款、支付进口产品货款的阿富汗商人。哈基米也是喀布尔工商联合会(Kabul Chamber of Commerce and Industry)的副主席。

他说，银行不能保证24小时内转账，我们可以；流出国外的是外援资金，以及商人的资金。

Yaroslav Trofimov

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