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 comments on newly-announced pay scales for civil servants that reduce the remuneration of virtually all positions.  For privacy and security reasons, we are withholding our Correspondent’s name. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has said that they are working on new Procedures to regulate salaries of civil servant employees in the country. To do so, the office of the prime minster together with a committee has prepared a new Procedure and sent it to the Ministry of Finance for enforcement. This new Procedure designates salaries of the prime minister, his deputies, the intelligence department head, the administrative office of the prime minister, and other government officials. Also, in the new Procedure, salaries of the employees of the different ministries have been clarified and the NTA (National Technical Assistance) salary scale and the exceptional salary scale for some government agencies have been set.

According to the Procedure, the prime minister will receive 198K to 250K AFN. It is worth mentioning that the minimum basic salary of employees in the government of the Taliban is 5,000 AFN and the minimum exceptional salary is 3,000 AFN. The Taliban have previously criticized the NTA salary scale and the exceptional salary scale but it seems that they have kept these two types of salaries in the new Procedure.

The Procedure has been prepared by the prime minister’s office and sent to the Ministry of Finance. The letter from the prime minister’s office to the ministry of finance provides that a committee has finalized the new Procedure and it is also signed by the prime minister. However, according to the relevant laws and regulations, salary scales need to be prepared by the Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission and the Ministry of Finance. Once they have a draft the prime minister should approve it.

Salaries of Grade One to Grade Eight

Grade	New Salary in Afghanis	Previous Salary in Afghanis
1	25,200 to 30,500	32,500
2	16,600 to 20,600	22,400
3	13,000 to 15,800	16,000
4	9,900 to 11,900	11,900
5	8,000 to 920,0	9,200
6	6,000 to 7,500	7,500
7	5,600 to 6,200	6,200
8	5,000 to 5,400	5,600

Salaries of Employees of Central Bank, New Kabul Bank, and Pashtany Bank

According to the new Procedure, the Governor of the central bank of Afghanistan receives AFN 122,000, the First Deputy Governor receives AFN 76,250, and the Second Deputy Governor receives 57,912. The same scale will be applied to leaders of the state-owned banks such as New Kabul Bank and Pashtany Bank.

Additionally, under the new Procedure, employees of the Central Bank, New Kabul Bank and Pashtany Bank who earn more than 70,000 AFN will have their salaries reduced by 15 percent. Moreover, the Procedure provides that employees of the above banks who earn more than 30,000 AFN and less than 70,000 will be reduced by 10 percent.

The Procedure also states that no head of the executive boards of the above banks should not receive more than 360K AFN. The Procedure also provides specific salary figures for  military officials, academics and university professors, judges and prosecutors, diplomats, and other governmental agencies.