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Friday, October 4, 2024

Taliban prepare new Afghan budget without foreign aid

A draft budget running until December 2022 has been prepared for approval by the Afghani finance ministry. Having no foreign aid, authorities remark “We are trying to finance it from our domestic revenues -- and we believe we can.”

Afghanistan’s finance ministry under the new Taliban government has prepared a draft national budget that, for the first time in two decades, is funded without foreign aid, a spokesman said.

It comes as the country is mired in economic crisis and faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe the United Nations has called an “avalanche of hunger”.

Read more: Taliban’s Afghanistan to receive 1m COVID vaccines from US

What does the draft hold?

Finance ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal did not disclose the size of the draft budget — which runs until December 2022 — but told AFP it would go to the cabinet for approval before being published.

Finance ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal did not disclose the size of the draft budget — which runs until December 2022 — but told AFP it would go to the cabinet for approval before being published.

“We are trying to finance it from our domestic revenues — and we believe we can,” he earlier told state television in an interview shared on Twitter.

Global donors suspended financial aid when the Taliban seized power in August and

of dollars in assets held abroad.

Read more: Living in Taliban’s shadow: A story of an Afghan film director

IMF’s involvement: a good move?

The 2021 budget, put together by the previous administration under IMF guidance, projected a deficit despite 219 billion Afghanis in aid and grants and 217 billion from domestic revenue.

At that time the exchange rate was around 80 Afghanis to the dollar, but the local currency has been hammered since the Taliban’s return, particularly in the past week, slumping to 130 on Monday before recovering Friday to around 100.

Haqmal accepted that public servants are still owed several months of wages, saying “we are trying our best” to make good on overdue pay by year-end.

Read more: US-Taliban conundrum: A game of brinkmanship

He warned, however, a new pay scale had also been prepared

 

AFP with additional input by GVS