Millions in Taliban Taxes Show Who’s in Charge as U.S. Departs
- Militant group threatens to bomb businesses that don’t pay up
- Taliban could share power in U.S.-brokered peace agreement
Taliban delegation members attend peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha in 2020.
Photographer: Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Running a business in Afghanistan has one unspoken rule: Pay the Taliban.
Abdul Ahad Wahidi learned that the hard way when insurgents blew up a gas pipeline last year that fuels the country’s only fertilizer plant after its operator refused to pay up. Now he and other workers at the factory fork over 14% of their wages to the Taliban -- nearly five times more than they pay the government in taxes.