Afghanistan: Taliban Announces Draft National Budget Without Foreign Aid As Recession Intensifies
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Alaina
- . December 21, 2021
- . Update: December 21, 2021 6:53 pm
Afghanistan– Afghanistan’s finance ministry under the Taliban government announced that it has written a draft national budget without foreign aid. Finance ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal announced the news. He claimed that for the first in 20 years, Afghanistan’s national budget did not consist of any foreign aid.
The National budget of Afghanistan will be entirely based on domestic revenues. It will not rely on foreign support. The spokesman did not disclose the important facts of the draft budget, however, he said it could be funded from domestic revenues. He further said that the draft budget will be submitted to the Taliban cabinet for taking approvals from them. While sharing the news of the national budget, Haqmal said that many workers are not paid for their work in the country. He said that they will pay the remaining salaries to public servants by year-end.
Afghanistan’s revenue
Reportedly, Afghanistan’s revenue department said last month that it had collected 26 billion Afghanis in the previous two and a half months. The current exchange rate (ER) of currency is around 100 Afghanis to the dollar. When the last budget was prepared in Afghanistan, the ER was around 80 Afghanis to the dollar. Haqmal claimed that their revenues are increasing rapidly.
No financial aid from western countries
When the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August, many countries refused to provide financial aid to the country. Many western countries also blocked access to billions of dollars in Afghanistan’s foreign exchange assets.
This news of the national budget came at a time when the United Nations (UN) warned that Afghanistan could suffer a major humanitarian crisis because of the widespread poverty in Afghanistan. According to the WFP (World Food Programme), half of the population of Afghanistan are expected to face life-threatening food insecurity because of widespread hunger. The national budget without foreign aid might deepen the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
