Some residents of Charikar City, the capital of Parwan province, say that the Taliban have set a one-week deadline for them to pay the 20-year Municipal Cleaning Fee arrears of the city. The Taliban have warned the residents of Charikar that if they do not pay this amount within a week, their homes will be sealed. According to the residents, the Taliban demand the “Municipal Cleaning Fee” based on house valuation from the people. However, the residents of Charikar say that due to the poor economic situation in the country, they are unable to pay this amount of money. They accuse the Taliban of “coercion” and emphasize that this group has multiplied the Cleaning Fee. On the other hand, some legal experts say that with the Taliban’s resurgence, Afghanistan’s legal system has been “halted” and no legitimate legal action is being taken. According to them, the Taliban’s actions, which are carried out in the absence of an official constitutional legality, are more of “autocracy and obscurantism” than legal legitimacy.
The Taliban municipality in Charikar City has asked property owners to pay the 20-year Cleaning Fee as soon as possible. However, residents of the city argue that they are facing severe economic hardships and persistent unemployment and cannot afford this Taliban demand.
Under a plan initiated by the Taliban municipality in Charikar, residents of six districts are obliged to pay the Municipal Cleaning Fee based on the valuation of their properties.
Fawad Ahmad, a resident of the sixth district of Charikar, told the Hasht-e Subh Daily, “The Taliban have determined the Municipal Cleaning Fee based on property valuation. Generally, they collect 300 Afghanis annually from every hundred thousand Afghanis, and from shops and commercial centers, they levy 750 Afghanis annually for every hundred thousand Afghanis.”
However, under the republic system, the municipality used to collect 1,300 Afghanis from them for Municipal Cleaning Fee, but this amount has increased several times under the Taliban regime.
The Taliban municipality in Charikar has given residents of the city’s six districts a one-week deadline to pay the Cleaning Fee from 2003 to this year. The Taliban have warned the residents of Charikar that if they do not pay this money within a week, their homes and other properties will be sealed.
However, residents argue that given the country’s poor economic situation, they cannot afford to pay this amount of money.
Nisar Ahmad Parwani, a resident of Charikar city, accuses the Taliban of “coercion” and states that this group has multiplied the Municipal Cleaning Fee. He adds, “We are struggling to afford our daily bread, and they are forcefully pressuring us to pay the Cleaning Fee. This is Taliban’s oppression and coercion imposed upon us.”
Parwani emphasizes, “The Municipal Cleaning Fee is a legal payment that we should make under a legitimate government, but we cannot pay money to a regime that has neither national nor international legitimacy.”
Tamim Ahmad, another resident of Charikar City, states that although the Taliban demand hefty payments from them for the cleansing of their homes and shops, this group has not provided any municipal services so far.
He emphasizes, “How can we pay a 20-year Municipal Cleaning Fee when we haven’t seen significant services from the municipality since past governments? In the past, the municipality only cleaned areas of people with power, but in this regime, nobody does the job right. They only clean the outskirts of the city occasionally, and in other areas, they don’t even know whether it falls under Charikar municipality or not.”
According to them, the negligence of municipal authorities in the city has led to increased garbage and various diseases, threatening the people’s health.
However, some residents of Charikar City demand that the Taliban at least reduce the Municipal Cleaning Fee and collect the money on an “installment” basis.
This comes as some legal experts say that with the Taliban’s dominance, Afghanistan’s legal system has been “halted,” and the actions being taken by the regime have no legal basis.
Arash Shahirpour, a former member of the faculty of Law and Political Science at Alberoni University, states that the actions of the Taliban, conducted in the absence of a formal constitutional legality, are more of “autocracy and obscurantism” than legal legitimacy.
Mr. Shahirpour adds, “Legally, in all countries of the world, countries claim to embody legal reason and wisdom, what has happened in the past will remain there, and the law does not allow an emir, king, president, prime minister, military commander, minister… to declare their present decision about the past mandatory. Therefore, nullity upon nullity is nullity.”
This legal expert emphasizes, “As long as there is no constitutional law in the country, actions under existing laws that have lost their roots [constitutional law] do not have legitimacy.”
This comes as since the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan, this group has imposed heavy taxes on the earnings of the people. Previously, complaints about heavy taxation by the Taliban have also been raised in other provinces.
