Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the Taliban takeover. Here, a Staff Correspondent for JURIST in Kabul reports on recent statements by Taliban officials about the forthcoming national budget, their first under the new government. For privacy and security reasons, we are withholding his name. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.

The Taliban Ministry of Finance has announced that they are about to finalize the National Budget for the upcoming year that will be entirely based on domestic revenues and will not rely on foreign aid. The contents of the National Budget for next year have not been disclosed, but the finance ministry spokesman said the budget could be funded from domestic revenues.

Since the Taliban took power in August, most foreign aid has been suspended, and the Taliban government has little money to spend.

The Taliban finance ministry’s spokesman, Ahmad Wali Haqmal, told the media that they had drafted the National Budget, which would be free of foreign aid for the first time in two decades. According to him, the draft budget will be submitted to the Taliban cabinet for approval before being published.

When the Taliban came to power in August this year, western-backed countries also blocked access to billions of dollars in Afghanistan’s foreign exchange assets, and suspended committed global financial aid. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian crisis caused by widespread hunger and poverty in the country.

Through the International Bank of Afghanistan, the United Nations provides cash assistance. Last month, the Taliban’s finance ministry announced that it would pay the unpaid three months’ salaries/wages to government employees, following complaints from employees in some ministries about not being paid. Ahmad Wali Haqmal acknowledged that government employees had not been paid for several months, saying “we will do our best” to pay the remaining salaries by the end of the year.

The Taliban Ministry of Finance also announced that they have generated 26.915 billion afghanis ($ 283 million) in revenue in the last 78 days. “Our revenue is increasing on a daily basis,” the ministry stated.

The previous government’s budget for last year, prepared under the support of the International Monetary Fund, was more than 473 billion afghanis (approximately $ 6 billion), of which 311 billion afghanis were general expenditure budget (approximately $ 4 billion) and 161 billion afghanis were development budgets. Afghanistan’s domestic resources contribute 216 billion afghanis ($ 2.8 billion) to this budget, with the remainder came from foreign aid.

The Draft National Budget of the Taliban government comes at a time when Afghanistan in on brink of mass starvation nearly four months after they seized power. According to different aid groups, millions of children and poor are in danger of death this winter in Afghanistan.

This winter, more than half of the population of Afghanistan are expected to face life-threatening food-insecurity according to the WFP. Additionally, the International Crisis Group has said in a recent report that the international community should support more Afghans before it is too late.

The decision to draft the National Budget without foreign aid and without understanding of modern economy will deepen the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan.