However, the BBC reports that donations from private citizens could come to as much as US$500 million a year. “The Taliban’s occupation of key border crossings could deny potentially significant levels of customs revenue to the Afghan government, further inhibiting its ability to generate sufficient domestic revenues,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a 30 July 30 report.Ī classified CIA report in 2008 estimated the Taliban received US$106 million in donations from foreign sources, particularly from Gulf states. The Afghanistan government lost 2.7 billion Afghanis (US$33 million) in July after the Taliban seized eight customs posts along the borders with Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. The Taliban will also be able to extract millions of dollars from the Afghanistan economy by imposing import duties on goods entering the country, after it seized several key border posts. Then there are the taxed industries which include media, telecommunications and development projects. Drivers on Taliban-controlled highways are charged tolls and shopkeepers are forced to pay taxes directly to the Taliban in controlled regions.įarmers also pay an “ushr”, or 10 per cent tax on their harvest, in addition to a 2.5 per cent wealth tax, economic policy analyst at the Centre for Afghanistan Studies Hanif Sufizada said. According to the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, the Taliban imposes a 10 per cent tax on every link in the opium production chain.Įxtortion contributes another US$160 million to the Taliban’s coffers. Opium, which is used in morphine, codeine and heroin, remains one of the largest consistent sources of funding for the Taliban.Īfghanistan is the source of around 84 per cent of the world’s global opium supply, according to the United Nation’s World Drug Report 2020.Īnd most of the profits are flowing to the Taliban. “The Taliban derived income from mining directly under their control and are assessed to derive further revenues from at least some of the mining areas controlled by the warlords,” the UN report said. That’s equivalent to about a third of the Afghan government’s total income.Īccording to the US Geological Survey Afghanistan, there is nearly US$1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in the country.Īnd the Taliban has extracted some US$464 million in profits by mining and imposing taxes on miners of copper, oil, gas, cobalt, gold, iron, lithium and lapis lazuli, member states told the UN. Mullah Yaqood, leader and son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, said the group recorded US$1.6 billion revenue in the year to March 2020. That huge figure is backed up by the group itself. “While impossible to ascertain to any degree of precision, estimates of annual income generated by the Taliban range from US$300 million (AU$400 million) to US$1.6 billion (AU$2.2 billion).” The report, which was compiled using information supplied by UN member states, also found that the Taliban received financial support in the form of donations from wealthy individuals, and from a network of non-governmental charitable groups. “The primary sources of Taliban financing remain criminal activities, including drug trafficking and opium poppy production, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, mineral exploitation and revenues from tax collection in areas under Taliban control or influence,” a United Nations report on the Taliban’s funding released in June found. It also raised the question: how has a Taliban force of around 75,000 fighters demolished the Afghan security force, and how has it paid for its campaign across the country? The Taliban has a reported revenue of AU$2.2 billion
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