Business

Taliban leader approves current fiscal year’s budget after months of delay

Taliban-run Ministry of Finance in Kabul. File photo.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban-run Ministry of Finance announced on Tuesday that the 1403 solar year’s budget has been approved by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. However, the ministry did not disclose the total amount of the budget.

The ministry stated that the budget is derived from domestic revenues and emphasized that it broadly addresses the “needs of the people.”

In a post on X, the Taliban-run Ministry of Finance noted that this year’s budget will incorporate both regular and developmental expenditures into the financial system.

The ministry’s statement did not provide any specific details about the budget. While it claimed that the budget “carefully considers the needs of the people”, it did not release information on the Taliban rule’s financial and public priorities.

It also remains unclear how the Taliban have managed to fund their budget from national resources. In the past, a significant portion of the government’s budget was financed by Western countries.

Previously, the Taliban approved the 2022 budget at 231 billion afghanis ($3.2 billion), allocating 203 billion ($2.8 billion) for regular expenses and 27.9 billion ($388 million) for development projects.