Taliban captures Afghanistan
The most notorious militant organization of all times, the Taliban have acquired so much wealth that its power is outside the realm of one’s imagination. After two decades of explicable menace over Afghanistan, and international terrorism, the group’s geographical grip and military capability have seen an impulsive build out overtime.
Military Growth
The US 2021 charts believe that the number of militant combatants have incremented thrice fold, which was around 30,000 a decade ago. This kind of establishment not only necessitates a massive infusion of funds from the country but abroad as well.
Report on their Annual Revenue
The United Nations estimates the group’s yearly income to be $400 million in 2011. According to BBC probe, by the end of 2018, this figure might have risen considerably to as much as $1.5 billion each year.
Taliban Resources
Foreign Funding
Several Afghan and US officials have long accused specific nations of providing financial support to the Taliban, including Pakistan, Iran, and Russia. Although it is hard to quantify exactly, these sources of money are estimated to account for a sizable percentage of the Taliban’s earnings.
Experts estimate that it may be as much as $500 million every year. Individual contributions from Pakistan and many Gulf countries, notably Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, are said to be the largest, ranging till $106m.
Narcotics trade
The Taliban has long been suspected of running a taxation system to fund its insurgency operations, which include the illegal opium trade.
Afghanistan is the world’s leading producer of opium that is later processed into heroin. According to the UN, opium harvesting supplied over 120,000 employment in Afghanistan in 2019.
According to Afghan government authorities, opium producers must pay a 10% cultivation tax. Taxes are also allegedly collected from the laboratories that transform opium into heroin, as well as the smugglers of the illegal narcotics.
Opium Revenue
The estimation of Taliban’s annual revenues from the illicit drug trade is said to be between $100 million and $400 million, contributing up to 60% of the Taliban’s yearly earnings.
Taliban Expansion
In 2018, the Taliban advised Afghan businessmen to pay taxes on a variety of products, including gasoline and building materials, while passing through territories under their control. Following the overthrow of the Afghan government, the Taliban now controls all of the country’s key commercial routes as well as border crossings, opening up new avenues for money from imports and exports.
The Taliban are reported to have generated tens of millions of dollars every year by charging trucks who feed foreign forces stationed across the country.
The Taliban has charged development and infrastructure projects, including as roads, schools, and clinics, which are largely sponsored by the West.
They are also alleged to have profited significantly from services given by the Afghan government.
In 2018, the Taliban were making more than $2 million per year through invoicing electricity households across the nation. In addition, there is revenue gained directly through war. When the Taliban seizes a military station or a city, they empty coffers and conquer a large number of weapons, as well as automobiles and military vehicles.
Mineral Industry
The Taliban has taken over mining sites and extorted money from both legitimate and illicit mining activities. According to Afghan government officials, the mining sector in Afghanistan is worth an estimated $1 billion each year. The majority of the extraction is done on a modest basis, and much of it is done illegally.
According to the Taliban’s 2014 UN annual report, the Taliban collected more than $10 million per year from 25 to 30 illicit mining enterprises in southern Helmand province.
