New York City, United States, 10/05/2021 / Top Wire News /

Taliban recently replaced the elected government of Afghanistan after their successful insurgency that was ongoing since 2001. Fighting against the armed forces of NATO is not an easy task and the Taliban would have required access to huge amounts of money to sustain their war effort. Let’s have a look at how the Taliban makes money.

How much does the Taliban make in a year?

As per NATO reports, the Taliban earned a total income of $1.6 billion in 2019 that is a whopping four-fold increase from the $400 million income that they earned in 2016. The same report identified 4 main sources of Taliban income, namely Drugs, Mining, Taxes, and Foreign Donations. The Taliban also used to collect tolls on roads that passed through their areas.

One needs to be a bit cautious as the figures given in this report are of a time when the Taliban was still an insurgent group and had not taken over all of Afghanistan. With the takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban’s income could have risen significantly as now they have got the sole right to levy and collect taxes from the general population.

Major sources of Taliban’s Income

Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world with approximately 85% of the world’s opium grown in Afghanistan. Opium is primarily used for producing heroin and grows in almost every area of Afghanistan. Taliban largely controls the drug trade in and out of Afghanistan and generated almost $416 million from their control of the opium trade.

Mining is the second-largest source of revenue for the Taliban as Afghanistan is quite rich in metals and minerals such as copper, iron, lead, zinc, and lithium. Taliban controls 20 to 30 mineral mines where various metals and minerals are mined and later sold in the regional and international markets.

Taxes are the third-largest source of income for the Taliban as they effectively controlled a good chunk of the country particularly in the east and the south and levied all sorts of taxes on the local population under their control.

Foreign donations are the fourth largest source of their income as the Taliban continues to get foreign donations from individuals and organizations based in other countries. Most of these are religious donations as the organization claims itself to be a religious movement and thus is able to get foreign donations from co-religionists based in other countries. Foreign donations amounted to $240 million in 2019 and represented almost 15% of the total revenue of the Taliban.

Taliban is also known to extort money from local businesses, small and large companies, and other civilians who happen to pass through their territory or want to do business in areas controlled by the Taliban.

Source: https://www.breezyscroll.com/breezy-explainer/breezy-explainer-how-the-taliban-makes-money/

Source: Story.KISSPR.com