KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered substantial cuts to the salaries and benefits of employees working in Taliban-run offices for the 1404 fiscal year.
According to a Taliban Finance Ministry directive obtained by KabulNow, ministries and adminstrations have been instructed to adjust the wages of both permanent and contract workers under a new, lower pay scale.
The revised salary structure drastically reduces monthly earnings across all job grades compared to the scale introduced by the Taliban in late 2021. For instance, the starting salary for top-grade employees has dropped from 25,200 Afghanis to 21,700 Afghanis, with similar cuts applied across lower grades. Salaries for superior and above-superior ranks have also been slashed, and embassy staff salaries have been capped between $800 and $355, depending on the position.
The documents reviewed by KabulNow did not include information about the salaries or benefits of senior Taliban leaders, such as the prime minister and his deputies, leaving it unclear whether their compensation has been reduced.
Alongside salary cuts, daily allowances for meals and night shifts have also been reduced.
A limited transportation stipend is now only available to employees in Kabul, while educational qualification bonuses have been halved or more compared to the previous system.
The Taliban recently announced plans to downsize their civil and military structures, eliminating thousands of positions in a cost-cutting drive.
Taliban authorities claim the reductions will mostly target “reserve” military units and lower-level civilian posts.
However, a leaked plan from the Taliban’s Ministry of Education indicates that around 90,000 positions could be slashed from that ministry alone.
These sweeping cuts come amid a financial crisis triggered by the suspension of U.S. funding and a sharp decline in international aid to Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
