According to a report published in 2022 by the research organisation XCEPT, coal shipments to Pakistan more than quadrupled under the Taliban’s rule and brought in $160 million in taxes for Afghanistan, three times more than the previous regime was able to generate.
At a time when an economic crisis has depleted Pakistan’s dollar reserves, the country has been severely impacted by the global energy crisis brought on by the conflict in Ukraine. As a result, it arranged a contract for Afghan coal to be paid for in rupees, bypassing South Africa and Indonesia, the country’s normal suppliers.
With a load of fruit and coal and paying the Taliban officials for the right of passage, a dusty bottleneck of vehicles squeezes through a rut in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Under the fluttering white flag of the nation’s new rulers, a patrol of accountants inspects a bazaar in central Kabul and bills shops for exchanging honey, hair conditioner, and gas stoves.
Despite the fact that Afghanistan is mired in a second winter of humanitarian unrest since the Taliban took control in 2021, money is moving at an astonishing rate.
Tax collection under the Taliban government is going well, and there doesn’t seem to be any corruption as there was under the former regime.
One trucker at Torkham, close to the border, told AFP that during the previous administration, he would pay 25,000 Afghanis ($280) at unauthorised checkpoints throughout the 620-kilometer (380-mile) journey to Mazar-i-Sharif.
The World Bank reported “high” revenue collection at 136 billion Afghani ($1.5 billion) throughout the first nine months of 2022, which was at the end of the US-backed regime’s final full year in power.
“It has been constantly reported that they are doing fairly well on revenue, and that too is occurring while economic activity is quite muted,” a representative of a foreign organisation in Afghanistan told AFP.