Taliban to start paying overdue salaries of Afghan government workers

On Nov 20, 2021

Afghanistan’s Taliban administration will begin paying the overdue salaries of government workers from Saturday, according to the officials.

The finance ministry said that, “Starting today, the past three months salaries of all government workers and staff will be paid totally.”

Thousands of Afghan government workers are owed at least three months of salary, one of the many crises faced by the Taliban since the Islamist movement took over the country in August.

Many public sector workers said they had not been paid for weeks. After the movement took power, billions of dollars of Afghan government funds parked abroad in the United States and Europe were frozen.

Foreign governments have been unwilling to fund the Taliban-led administration directly to help with financial commitments such as payment of workers.

After a meeting on Thursday between the special envoys of Germany and the Netherlands and Taliban officials in Kabul, the envoys expressed willingness to explore paying health and education sector workers directly through international organisations.

Kamila/Reuters