Ariana: The Shpageeza Cricket League 2022 got underway in Kabul on Monday with eight teams scheduled to battle it out for this year’s title. The 8th season of this year’s tournament will run through until August 5 with 32 matches scheduled to take place. All matches will be held at the Kabul International Cricket Stadium. Click here to read more (external link).
Abdul Manan Omari Misuses One Million USD of the Railway Administration’s Revenue
8am: Hasht-e Subh has gained access to information which indicate that Abdul Manan Omari, the Taliban’s Public Works Minister, has used more than one million dollars of the revenues of the Railway Department and a generator for financing his personal investment objectives. Several sources confirm that Abdul Manan Omari, the Taliban’s Public Works Minister and the brother of Mullah Omar, the founder of this group, is not willing to return one million dollars from the revenues of the Bandar Aqena Railway Directorate to the Railway Administration. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – July 17, 2022
20 Taliban Fighters Killed in Andarab, Baghlan
8am: Local sources in Baghlan province have reported that fighting has escalated in some areas of Andarab district of Baghlan province, particularly in Qasan valley, between the Taliban and National Resistance Front (NRF) forces since Saturday, July 16, 2022. As a result of the conflicts, 17 Taliban fighters are killed and at least 10 others injured. Click here to read more (external link).
Cases of Seasonal Diseases Surge in Kabul, Doctors Say
Tolo News: The cases of seasonal diseases have been on the rise in the last three weeks, doctors said, calling for more precautions by families to observe to prevent infections such as cholera and diarrhea as the weather is warming. Other seasonal diseases include cold, malaria and measles, said Mohammad Naeem Akbari, a physician at Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kabul. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News in Dari – July 16, 2022
Taliban Again Raise Coal Prices Amid Booming Exports to Pakistan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 16, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s cash-strapped Taliban government has tripled prices for coal in less than a month to raise revenue from its mining sector amid a lack of direct foreign funding and booming coal exports to neighboring Pakistan.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in Kabul, Esmatullah Burhan, on Saturday told VOA that each ton of coal is priced at $280.
On June 28, the Taliban-led Finance Ministry raised coal prices to $200 per ton from $90 per ton. Customs duties also were raised by 10 percent, totaling 30% on each ton, although Afghan coal is still comparatively cheap — about 40% of the international market value.
Burhan said Afghanistan is exporting about 10,000 tons of coal a day to Pakistan. He asserted that the government is selling coal to private Afghan traders in local currency (known as Afghani) and they are then exporting it, primarily to the neighboring country.
He told VOA that out of Afghanistan’s 80 coal mines, 17 are currently in use.
The repeated Afghan coal price hikes came just after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced plans last month to increase coal imports from Afghanistan using local currency, as opposed to dollars, to save foreign reserves.
Officials in Kabul insist that coal prices have been revised after studying regional markets and rising global prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine to ensure Afghan traders could receive as much revenue as possible and prevent Pakistani importers from switching to other options.
Sharif told a recent cabinet meeting that importing Afghan coal could help Islamabad save more than $2.2 billion annually. His decision comes against a backdrop of rising coal prices on the international market in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Pakistan, which reportedly imported 70% of its thermal coal from South Africa to run its cement, steel and Chinese-built power plants, is facing an energy crisis. South African coal prices have increased in recent weeks because of higher demand from Europe.
The shortages have forced coal-based facilities in Pakistan to either operate at significantly reduced capacities or to shut down plants temporarily.
Customs duties from coal exported to Pakistan are a key source of revenue for the Taliban. The Islamist group reclaimed control of Afghanistan nearly a year ago, but sanctions on the Afghan banking sector and the suspension of foreign financial aid have severely hampered the war-torn country’s economy.
No country has formally recognized the Taliban government, citing concerns over human rights of Afghans, particularly restrictions placed on women’s rights to work and education.
Islamabad already has eased the visa regime for Afghan nationals and removed duties on all imports from Afghanistan to help facilitate bilateral trade.
Additionally, Taliban authorities, in collaboration with Pakistani counterparts, are said to be working to smooth the transportation of coal exports at border crossings between the two countries.
Hundreds of trucks carrying coal pass daily through three dedicated border crossings, and both sides are planning to add more space for additional trucks and open customs facilities for longer durations per day, instead of 12 hours currently.
A high-level Pakistani delegation, led by top commerce ministry officials, will travel to Afghanistan Sunday to further the discussions. Pakistani officials said Islamabad would discuss the pricing issue, as well as propose to keep border terminals open 24 hours for coal imports and infrastructure-related improvements on the Afghan side.
Taliban Suffers Significant Losses in Andrab: Sources
8am: Sources in the Andrab valley of Baghlan province say that a fierce war is raging on between the National Resistance Front (NRF) and Taliban. Sources told Hasht-e Subh that intense fighting in Qasan Valley, Andrab, started at ten o’clock today (Saturday, July 16th) and continues to rage until now. Click here to read more (external link).
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It is not in US interest for Afghanistan to be a failed state: Khalilzad
Zalmay Khalilzad
Ariana: In a discussion released on Saturday by US-based investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs, Khalilzad said that parts of the US deal with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) have not been implemented. “Parts of it were implemented, parts are not,” Khalilzad said. “We need to go back and tell the Talibs (IEA) let’s finish the unfinished business.” Click here to read more (external link).
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Cash-Strapped Taliban ‘Exploiting’ Afghanistan’s Natural Resources To Boost Revenue
Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
July 15, 2022
Cash-strapped and cut off from international aid, the Taliban-led government is tapping into Afghanistan’s natural resources to boost revenue.
Since the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul and seized power in August 2021, the export of and custom duties from coal have become a key source of revenue for the militant group.
Afghanistan has significant deposits of coal. Out of the country’s 80 coal mines, 17 are operational, with most located in central and northern Afghanistan. Much of the coal is being trucked to neighboring Pakistan, which is facing a severe energy crisis.
But exports have hit snags recently after the Taliban hiked prices, in a move that has put off importers. Competing claims over coal mines has also triggered Taliban infighting.
‘Desperate Need To Raise Funds’
Foreign trade has fallen off dramatically since the Taliban seized power, and the international assistance that once propped up the Afghan economy has evaporated, leaving the Taliban to fund its government on its own. No country has recognized the Taliban-led government, which has been hit by international sanctions.
The Taliban has relied heavily on tax collection and the increased export of valuable natural resources like coal to generate revenue.
In May, the militants increased coal exports to Pakistan, aiming to generate more revenue from Afghanistan’s mining sector and capitalize on record prices for coal. Global supplies have fallen due to Russia’s war against Ukraine and top exporter Indonesia’s ban on exports.
The Taliban reportedly collected around $40 in million in customs duties from coal exported to Pakistan in the first six months of this year. The hard-line Islamists have also boosted coal exports to 1.8 million tons in the past year, a rise of 16 percent. The Taliban has been exporting an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 tons of coal, mostly to Pakistan, each day.
But the Taliban’s plan to use Afghanistan’s easy-to-extract coal deposits to generate much-needed revenue has hit roadblocks in recent weeks.
Last month, the Taliban increased its taxes on coal exports from 20 percent to 30 percent. In early July, the Taliban’s Finance Ministry said it also lifted prices for coal from $90 per ton to $200. On July 15, coal was trading at over $300 per ton on international markets.
The price hike came soon after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced plans to import heavily discounted coal from Afghanistan using Pakistani rupees to save dwindling foreign reserves.
The revelation sparked a public outcry in Afghanistan, where many have long viewed the Taliban as a Pakistani proxy. Islamabad has been the militants’ key foreign sponsor for decades and sheltered the Islamist group during its nearly 20-year insurgency against Afghan and international forces.
“The Taliban are sensitive to how Afghans domestically perceive them,” said Hameed Hakimi, an Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. “Therefore, selling coal cheaply to Pakistan would inevitably paint them as Pakistani puppets.”
Ultimately, Hakimi said, the price hike has “a lot to do with the Taliban’s desperate need to raise funds and maximize revenues.”
Pakistan is reportedly reevaluating its purchase of Afghan coal following the Taliban’s decision to more than double prices for the commodity. Chinese energy companies in Pakistan have threatened to stop importing Afghan coal.
‘Exploited Mining’
In forecasting a $2.6 billion budget that has impressed experts despite a projected $500 million deficit, the Taliban claimed to have cleaned up corruption in the collection of taxes and from the illegal mining and export of natural resources.
But experts said that significant amounts of coal were still being smuggled to Pakistan, an issue also faced by the previous government. Observers said some Taliban leaders and commanders were benefiting from illegal exports that skirted their own government’s revenue collection systems.
“Right now, there is no legal and administrative framework for mining,” said an Afghan mining expert who did not want to reveal his identity for security reasons. “The most powerful figures in successive Afghan governments have exploited mining to line their pockets and this has continued.”
Control over natural resources has led to Taliban infighting. Last month, the Taliban launched a major offensive against Mehdi Mujahid, formerly the most senior ethnic Hazara security official in the Taliban government. Observers said the violence was at least partly over the control of coal mines in Mujahid’s native northern province of Sar-e Pul.
“Competition over mineral resources will be a key driver of Taliban infighting,” the Afghan mining expert said.
During its insurgency, the Taliban partly funded its insurgency by operating mines and imposing illegal taxes on the trade.
“Now, they have to behave like a government to ensure that the mining sector provides desperately needed revenue,” said Hakimi. “This is a major dilemma the Islamist group faces in exploiting Afghanistan’s mineral wealth.”