Overview
- Acting commerce minister Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi offered five-year tax exemptions for new-sector investments, including gold mining, with a 1% tariff on imported machinery and a requirement to process minerals inside Afghanistan.
- India and Afghanistan will post commercial attachés in New Delhi and Kabul within about a month and have agreed to reactivate their joint working group on trade, commerce and investment.
- India’s foreign ministry said the Kabul–Delhi and Kabul–Amritsar air freight corridors have been activated, with cargo flights on both routes starting soon.
- Visa and trade facilitation steps include business visas via the Indian embassy in Kabul, the resumption of medical visas, work to ease banking channels, efforts to lower air-cargo rates, and reduced charges such as a 2.5% tariff on medicines and a planned FSSAI fee waiver for Afghan food items.
- Afghan officials underscored plans to pivot transit toward India and Iran, including greater use of Chabahar, after Pakistan closed key trading posts on October 11 and land routes remained constrained.