Taliban starts paying overdue salaries of Afghan Govt. workers

AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan’s Taliban administration began paying the overdue salaries of Government workers from Saturday, officials said.

Thousands of Afghan government workers are owed at least three months of salary, one of the many crises faced by the Taliban since the Islamist movement took over the country in August.

“The finance ministry says that, starting today, the past three months salaries of all government workers and staff will be paid totally,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear where the funds to pay the salaries would come from.

Even before the Taliban seized control last in August, many public sector workers said they had not been paid for weeks. After the movement took power, billions of dollars of Afghan government funds parked abroad in the United States and Europe were frozen.

Foreign Governments have been unwilling to fund the Taliban-led administration directly to help with financial commitments such as payment of workers. Global financial institutions have also halted funding. Another Taliban spokesman, Inamullah Samangani, said on Twitter on Saturday that the daily revenue collections of the Taliban had been increasing daily.

– THE INDIAN EXPRESS