He’s the Taxman of Kabul, a bearded, black-turbaned Talib with a genial method and the calculating thoughts of a computer-savvy accountant.
As director of the Taliban’s Taxpayers Companies Directorate, Abdul Qahar Ghorbandi has the unenviable job of elevating income for the federal government of a wretchedly poor, remoted nation.
From his perch behind an unlimited desk subsequent to a black and white Taliban flag, Mr. Ghorbandi rides herd on a whole lot of Afghan taxpayers every weekday. He makes positive they arrive with earnings documentation and depart with a fistful of tax varieties to fill out.
Lecturers, cash changers, truckers, marriage ceremony planners, grocers and others trudge the worn hallways of the imposing tax constructing, discussing their taxes with Talibs pecking away at pc terminals.
The Taliban have sought to ramp up tax assortment after a extreme financial contraction that adopted their takeover in 2021. The authoritarian regime has been crippled by sanctions, partially over its harsh restrictions on ladies and ladies.
U.S. help, drastically diminished since 2021, might be eradicated totally below President Trump’s finances cuts. That help has gone to the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations working in Afghanistan, not on to the Taliban authorities.
With the Taliban now in energy, former guerrilla fighters should operate as bureaucrats. Within the 280-person tax division, they work alongside staff inherited from the U.S.-backed authorities that the Taliban overthrew.
“On the similar desk we’ve folks with turbans, with beards, subsequent to folks with fits,” mentioned Mohammad Walid Haqmal, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.
The Taxman himself, Mr. Ghorbandi, was an undercover operative for the Taliban in Kabul earlier than changing into a civil servant, he mentioned.
Mr. Ghorbandi, who mentioned he had a grasp’s diploma in pc science, presides over a tax administration pc system transformed from English into Pashto and Dari. He has employed IT specialists to modernize the division.
He has additionally tried to instill a tradition of transparency, he mentioned as he took a break for a lunch of beef kebabs and rice. His staff should not permitted to deal with money. Taxpayers take their varieties to a government-run financial institution and pay taxes there.
When he’s not at his desk signing reams of paperwork delivered by aides hustling out and in, he mentioned, he visits totally different sections of his division, asking taxpayers how he might make the method sooner.
Worldwide observers say the Taliban have diminished the tax corruption and cronyism that Afghans say had been rampant below the U.S.-aligned authorities, whereas streamlining the method of amassing taxes.
Though many well-connected Afghans as soon as averted paying taxes, Mr. Ghorbandi harassed that whilst the federal government Taxman, he was not exempt. He mentioned he paid 30,000 afghanis a month, or somewhat over $400.
Nevertheless open and environment friendly, it’s nonetheless a tax workplace, although, and never each taxpayer leaves glad.
Shamsurahman Shams, who confirmed up in the future late final 12 months, had a beef with the Taxman. He mentioned the 2 personal colleges he helped run had not turned a revenue the previous three years — and he carried a plastic folder full of paperwork to show it. But he had been assessed 500,000 afghanis, or about $7,350, in taxes.
He engaged in a spirited however civil dialogue with a division worker, displaying the person his paperwork. There was no decision. He was instructed to return later to renew negotiations.
Though it was not the result he had hoped for, Mr. Shams conceded that the brand new course of was extra clear than the earlier system. “Not less than they listened to me,” he mentioned.
Throughout the battle, the Taliban ran a profitable tax system that levied customs duties, trucking charges and native taxes in areas they managed. Additionally they earned tens of millions by imposing 10 % taxes — “ushar” in Islam — on poppy farmers, although they’ve since banned poppy manufacturing.
In 2023, the Taliban authorities collected about $3 billion in taxes, customs and costs, or 15.5 % of gross home product. (The comparable charge in the US was 25.2 %). The most important supply for the Taliban was so-called nontax revenue — customs duties, mining revenues, telecom licenses, airport prices, and costs for nationwide ID playing cards, passports and visas, the World Financial institution reported. That income, for the primary half of final 12 months, elevated 27 % in contrast with the identical interval the earlier 12 months.
Half of presidency revenues had been spent on safety and the navy final 12 months, and simply 26 % on social applications — most of that on training for boys, in line with worldwide observers.
Mr. Ghorbandi mentioned the tax system was not designed to be punitive. Beneficiant exemptions imply that the majority peculiar Afghans don’t pay earnings taxes. Shopkeepers with annual gross sales under two million afghanis, or about $29,500, are also exempt.
Retailers with earnings over that quantity are taxed at simply 0.3 % — a charge that American conservatives would absolutely respect.
There are not any money penalties or curiosity charges for taxpayers who don’t pony up on time. However scofflaws can lose their enterprise licenses and entry to the banking system.
“We’re human,” Mr. Ghorbandi mentioned. “We don’t wish to put burdens on our folks.”
He and Mr. Haqmal, the Finance Ministry spokesman, mentioned the last word objective was to eradicate all earnings taxes.
“It’s a direct order from our supreme chief,” Mr. Haqmal mentioned. “He mentioned: ‘I want a tax-free Afghanistan.’” Mr. Haqmal was referring to Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s emir and head of state.
One other direct order from Sheikh Haibatullah has been the shredding of women’s rights and broader restrictions on civil liberties for all Afghans. Ladies are prohibited from touring any vital distance with no male family member and are obligated to cowl their whole our bodies and faces in public. The sound of a girl’s voice outdoors her house is banned.
A placing characteristic of the tax division’s 15 sections in Kabul is the sight of feminine taxpayers in rooms filled with males.
Lida Ismaeli, who operates a non-public faculty, sat subsequent to a bearded Talib as he reviewed her tax standing on a pc. She mentioned nobody had complained that she spoke with a male worker about her taxes with no male family member current.
Beneath the earlier authorities, Ms. Ismaeli mentioned, she by no means knew whether or not her taxes went to the federal government or into the pockets of the worker she paid.
“The system is healthier now — it’s extra honest,” she mentioned.
Down a darkened hallway, Mohammad Taqi Irfani, a cash changer, huddled over a pc display with a tax worker. Mr. Irfani appeared resigned to his assessed tax cost of 73,500 afghanis, or about $1,080, on his annual earnings.
He mentioned he didn’t get pleasure from paying taxes — who does? — however his tax burden was clearly defined to him, and his enterprise accounts weren’t questioned. Beneath the American-backed authorities, he mentioned, tax collectors got here to his workplace and demanded bribes to decrease his tax evaluation.
“They had been in it simply to earn a living for themselves,” he mentioned. “Thus far below this authorities, nobody has ever requested me for a bribe.”
Safiullah Padshah and Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting.
