KABUL (Reuters) – According to sources, Afghanistan’s Taliban administration will begin paying outstanding paychecks to government employees on Saturday.
Thousands of Afghan government employees are due at least three months’ pay, one of the numerous difficulties confronting the Taliban since the Islamist outfit took control of the nation in August.
“The financial ministry states that starting today, the salaries of all government workers and personnel for the previous three months will be paid in full,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated on Twitter.
The source of the cash to pay the wages was not immediately evident.
Even before the Taliban took over in August, many public-sector employees said they had not been paid in weeks. Following the movement’s victory, billions of dollars in Afghan government monies stashed in the United States and Europe were frozen.
Foreign nations have been hesitant to actively finance the Taliban-led administration in order to assist with financial commitments such as worker compensation. Funding has also been blocked by global financial institutions.
Following a meeting in Kabul on Thursday between the special envoys of Germany and the Netherlands and Taliban leaders, the envoys expressed a willingness to investigate directly compensating health and education sector personnel through international organization.
It is unclear whether the Taliban’s proclamation on Saturday is connected to this.
Another Taliban spokesperson, Inamullah Samangani, stated on Twitter on Saturday that the Taliban administration’s daily income collections were growing.
“According to the finance ministry, we have produced income of around 26.915 billion Afghanis ($288 million) in the last 78 working days in the last three months,” he stated.
“On Wednesday alone, we collected 557 million Afghanis ($5.9 million) in income,” Samangani said, citing the finance ministry, adding that pension payments to retired workers will start shortly.