Taliban Again Raise Coal Prices Amid Booming Exports to Pakistan

 
Afghanistan’s cash-strapped Taliban authorities has tripled costs for coal in lower than a month to boost income from its mining sector amid an absence of direct overseas funding and booming coal exports to neighboring Pakistan.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in Kabul, Esmatullah Burhan, on Saturday informed VOA that every ton of coal is priced at $280.

On June 28, the Taliban-led Finance Ministry raised coal costs to $200 per ton from $90 per ton. Customs duties additionally had been raised by 10 %, totaling 30% on every ton, though Afghan coal remains to be comparatively low cost — about 40% of the worldwide market worth.

Burhan mentioned Afghanistan is exporting about 10,000 tons of coal a day to Pakistan. He asserted that the federal government is promoting coal to personal Afghan merchants in native foreign money (often known as Afghani) and they’re then exporting it, primarily to the neighboring nation.

He informed VOA that out of Afghanistan’s 80 coal mines, 17 are at the moment in use.

The repeated Afghan coal worth hikes got here simply after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif introduced plans final month to extend coal imports from Afghanistan utilizing native foreign money, versus {dollars}, to save lots of overseas reserves.

Officers in Kabul insist that coal costs have been revised after finding out regional markets and rising international costs within the wake of the conflict in Ukraine to make sure Afghan merchants might obtain as a lot income as potential and forestall Pakistani importers from switching to different choices.

Sharif informed a current cupboard assembly that importing Afghan coal might assist Islamabad save greater than $2.2 billion yearly. His choice comes towards a backdrop of rising coal costs on the worldwide market within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pakistan, which reportedly imported 70% of its thermal coal from South Africa to run its cement, metal and Chinese language-built energy vegetation, is dealing with an vitality disaster. South African coal costs have elevated in current weeks due to increased demand from Europe.

The shortages have pressured coal-based services in Pakistan to both function at considerably diminished capacities or to close down vegetation briefly.

Customs duties from coal exported to Pakistan are a key income for the Taliban. The Islamist group reclaimed management of Afghanistan almost a 12 months in the past, however sanctions on the Afghan banking sector and the suspension of overseas monetary help have severely hampered the war-torn nation’s financial system.

No nation has formally acknowledged the Taliban authorities, citing considerations over human rights of Afghans, notably restrictions positioned on ladies’s rights to work and training.

Islamabad already has eased the visa regime for Afghan nationals and eliminated duties on all imports from Afghanistan to assist facilitate bilateral commerce.

Moreover, Taliban authorities, in collaboration with Pakistani counterparts, are mentioned to be working to clean the transportation of coal exports at border crossings between the 2 international locations.

A whole lot of vehicles carrying coal go each day via three devoted border crossings, and each side are planning so as to add extra space for added vehicles and open customs services for longer durations per day, as a substitute of 12 hours at the moment.

A high-level Pakistani delegation, led by prime commerce ministry officers, will journey to Afghanistan Sunday to additional the discussions. Pakistani officers mentioned Islamabad would focus on the pricing difficulty, in addition to suggest to maintain border terminals open 24 hours for coal imports and infrastructure-related enhancements on the Afghan facet.