In the past week, the Taliban started extorting heavy taxes of up to 100,000 afghanis from residents in Lal-o-Sarjangal district of Ghor province.
Abdul Karim, a resident who didn’t want his real name used, tells Zan Times that the Taliban demanded 100,000 afghanis in taxes from every narcotics factory in the district. That’s the equivalent of US$1,575. He says that shopkeepers have been taxed several times.
“The Taliban collect taxes from the shopkeepers for their goods,” says another resident, who asked Zan Times to call him by the pseudonym of Abdul Sabour. “If the store’s goods are few, the tax is low, and if the store has more goods, the tax will be higher.” As well, he says the Taliban have started collecting 3,000 to 4,000 afghanis from each household.
At the same time, some residents of the district complain that the Taliban are simultaneously collecting both this new tax as well as zakat, a mandatory religious taxation. Abdul Ghani (the pseudonym for another resident in the district) explains to Zan Times that the Taliban get “30,000 to 60,000 Afghanis from every village council under the name of zakat, and no one has the courage to protest and raise their voice, and they are fed up with this.”
The added demands from the Taliban come as many residents struggle to make even a subsistence living in the country’s troubled economy. “The people of the district live below the poverty line, and due to consecutive droughts, they have less harvest this year,” says Raouf, another resident who asked for his name not to be used. “Paying this tax is very heavy for them and they cannot pay it.”
The forcible tithes and heavy taxes are being imposed as the country has been engulfed by a humanitarian crisis. The UN said in late August that more than half of the country’s population, nearly 24 million people, is in need of immediate assistance, of which 19 million face acute levels of food shortages.
