The Taliban government’s finance ministry in Afghanistan has prepared a draft state budget, which will be funded for the first time in 20 years without international assistance, a ministry spokesman said.
It is being prepared while Afghanistan is in a deep economic crisis that is in danger of turning into a humanitarian crisis, with the UN World Food Program warning of an impending “famine avalanche”.
Finance Ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Hakmal did not specify the amount of the draft budget – which will be covered by December 2022 – but told AFP today that it must be approved by the Afghan government before it can be published.
“We will try to finance it with domestic revenue and we believe we can,” he said earlier in an interview with state television station RTA, excerpts of which were broadcast via Twitter.
International aid to Afghanistan was suspended after the Taliban returned to power in August, with Western countries freezing billions of dollars in foreign assets.
The 2021 budget, drawn up by the previous regime under the auspices of the IMF, included 219 billion afghanis (1.75 billion euros at current exchange rates) in international aid and 217 billion afghanis in revenue.
The exchange rate was then around 90 Afghanis for one euro but the local currency has not stopped depreciating since the return of the Taliban. Today, it was above the level of 120 Afghanis against the euro.
Hakmal also acknowledged that many months’ wages are still owed to civil servants, saying “we are doing our best” to settle arrears before the end of the year.
Source: AMPE
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Source From: Capital
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