Afghanistan's Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation) interim government received $160 million in customs taxes last year from coal shipments to Pakistan by road through the Torkham checkpoint at the border of eastern Nangarhar province. The Express Tribune reported this on Friday, citing sources.
They said that an amount of $160 million is three times the level of taxes on coal shipments to Pakistan collected by the Afghan government, which ruled the country until the Taliban seized power in 2021.
In January, the World Bank reported that in the first nine months of 2022, the revenues of Afghanistan's interim government totaled 136 billion afghanis ($1.5 billion), the same amount as the entire last year of the previous administration in power.
Pakistan doubled its coal purchases from neighboring Afghanistan in 2022 amid a global energy crisis and economic damage from devastating floods. Due to dwindling foreign exchange reserves, Islamabad struck a deal with Kabul to pay for Afghan coal in rupees, forgoing imports of energy coal from South Africa and Indonesia paid for in dollars.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Petr Kratochvil/CC0
Based on materials from TASS