Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
When the field is brown Afghanistan changing colors to a mix of pinks, whites, and purples each spring, farmers rejoice that their poppies are ready to harvest. However, United States of America panicked at this sight.
“When I look at the poppy fields, I see them turning into money, then into IEDs [alat peledak], [senapan] AKs, and rocket grenades,” the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Dan McNeill, told CNN.
Opium is the main source of income for the Taliban. The money from the sale of opium was also allegedly used to buy weapons to fight US-assisted Afghan forces.
Until finally, the Taliban resistance succeeded and now they are the rulers of Afghanistan. When they seized the throne, the Taliban promised the world that they would not turn Afghanistan into a drug state.
“Afghanistan will not be a place for narcotics cultivation so the international community must help us so that we can have an alternative [untuk para petani opium],” said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.
Now, the Taliban have to rack their brains to find other sources of income. To this day, the Taliban’s strategy for achieving that goal remains a mystery.
The opium economy
While the Taliban are thinking, some experts are starting to doubt Afghanistan’s ability to get out of the “opium economy” so far.
In recent decades, Afghanistan has become known as one of the world’s largest opium producers. According to United Nations data, Afghanistan will produce about 85 percent of all opium in the world in 2020.
In 2018, the United Nations estimated the opium economy would account for 11 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP. However, it is not clear how much profit the Taliban will make from the total opium revenue.
“What is clear is that drugs are an important aspect of the Taliban’s profits,” said Brookings Institution senior researcher Vanda Felbab-Brown.
Felbab-Brown went on to explain that most insurgent groups in Afghanistan usually take advantage of “taxing” all aspects of the opium chain.
The Taliban tax system
An expert who has studied the drug economy for more than two decades, David Mansfield, says the world believes the Taliban is charging 10 percent of the price of drugs. But according to him, if practiced, the calculation is impossible.
He took the example, the profit margin of one kilogram of heroin usually ranges from US $ 80-120 per kilogram. For methamphetamine, the profit margin is around US$30-50 per kilogram.
If the Taliban levied a 10 percent tax on the final pre-export price, the profits of about $1,800 per kilogram of heroin would simply evaporate after taking into account all other costs.
Mansfield considered this calculation impossible because on the ground, rebel groups and farmers would not want to lose so much money just on taxes.
Although it is not known for certain, what is clear is that experts estimate that the Taliban are sucking in profits between tens and hundreds of millions of dollars from this opium economy.
Income from this opium is much smaller than tax collection from other sectors. However, there is a heavy political price behind opium. Read more on the next page >>>
Opium Profits for the Taliban: Small, but Important for Politics
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