How much money does the Taliban have? What a ridiculous question, right?
What if I tell you that TALIBAN is the richest insurgent group. Recently, the CIA has exposed that the Taliban is not a local insurgent group, but it is a huge financial network.
-How does the Taliban get money?
34. The team estimates that Taliban income for 21 march 2011 to 20 March 2012 (the afghan calendar year) was around $400 million. About $275 million of that reached the Taliban leadership for their disbursement, while around $125 million was collected, spent, or misappropriated at the local level. ISAF estimates the annual cost to the Taliban of mounting attacks during 2011 at between $100 million and $155 million; the rest of the money goes to maintaining the insurgency. Since 2006 the Taliban have managed to finance an ever-increasing number of attacks, reflecting a year-on-year increase in income.
What's the source? And what difference does their income make to us?
We will learn about INCOME SOURCES OF TALIBAN.
Which will also clear up some things in the future.
These facts are important, but they're hidden from the people. So please help us spread this message to more people.
-4 MAIN SOURCES OF INCOME
Some of these sources may be very shocking for you.
The first source of opium - Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer. This innocent-looking flower gives birth to a not-so-innocent substance, which we call heroin. More than 15 million people worldwide are heroin addicts. This drug is illegal—the world's illegal heroin industry is worth $65 billion US dollars. Apart from heroin, opium is used to manufacture another important drug, "Morphine,."
Which is used to reduce pain signals. I m not talking about a small share of 85% of the world's opium comes from Afghanistan. Talking about demand, Russia and china top the countries of heroin demand. So now you know why these countries are so interested in Afghanistan. Every year, Afghanistan earns USD 3 billion only by exporting opium, which $400 million is the Taliban's cut or share.
The second source - Tax collection. This was even before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. You can see this picture by VOX that how the USA, the UN, and Japan tried to construct this ring road through Afghanistan, and they failed in their objection because even after 20 years of effort,, this road couldn't be completed. If there is a bigger problem than the Taliban in Afghanistan, it is a problem of connectivity. Smaller cities, towns, and villages are quite isolated and far away from big cities like Kabul.
In case there is an emergency, how does one reach a major city? To change this connectivity issue, the idea of the ring road was formulated, But the Taliban controlled many areas of this ring road, And the farmers and traders who passed on the road had to pay a small amount as "tax" to the Taliban. In the same way, projects like roads, schools, clinics for the development of the people and to provide basic facilities to them were also taxed by the Taliban. If this were not paid for, the facilities would not be built.
The head of Afghanistan's Electricity Company told the BBC in an interview to give permission to produce electricity, they had to pay $2 million as tax to the Taliban. That means in the last 20 years; every development project has helped develop the Taliban's finances well.
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