KANDAHAR (Amu tv): Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has assumed direct control over Afghanistan’s financial affairs and relocated key fiscal authority from Kabul to Kandahar, according to four sources from Kandahar with knowledge of the matter.
According to sources, the move, which has not been publicly announced by the Taliban administration, sidelines the Taliban-run Ministry of Finance and centralizes decision-making in the leader’s stronghold in southern Afghanistan.
Sources familiar with internal operations said Akhundzada has established a financial office in Kandahar through which he oversees national budgetary and revenue matters.
Sources in Kandahar told Amu that the Taliban-run Ministry of Finance, led by Mohammad Nasir Akhund, has not held any formal budget meetings in at least five months.
Public records reviewed by Amu support these claims, indicating the ministry has issued only minor updates on customs enforcement and low-cost projects, with no public information on national revenue or budget allocations in recent months.
The ministry has also not released a national budget for the Afghan fiscal year 1404, now two months underway — a break from past practice. Similarly, projected revenue figures, once a routine part of fiscal announcements, have not been disclosed.
Nasir Akhund, who was appointed by Akhundzada more than two years ago, is a senior Taliban figure from Ghazni Province but has no formal education in finance. According to his official biography, he studied Islamic law in Pakistan and holds no academic degree.
Observers say Akhund plays a largely symbolic role in the Taliban’s financial apparatus. In the past five months, he has not publicly led any budgetary meetings and has only appeared in provincial visits to Kandahar, Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman, according to ministry reports.
“The absence of a constitution allows unchecked centralization,” said Sayed Masoud, a university professor in Kabul. “Without legal structures, governance becomes highly personalized and centered around one figure.”
Taliban insiders told Amu that while the Taliban-run Ministry of Finance continues to collect revenues and taxes, all major financial decisions are now directed from Akhundzada’s office in Kandahar.
The centralization of power in Kandahar — widely seen as the Taliban’s ideological and political base — has fueled internal tensions within the Taliban, according to analysts and recent United Nations reporting.
A report by the U.N. Secretary-General released two months ago stated that Akhundzada has taken further steps to consolidate control by positioning loyalists in key roles and bypassing traditional administrative channels.
The growing concentration of authority in Kandahar, especially in the absence of institutional checks, is viewed by some observers as a source of deepening factional divisions within the Taliban leadership.
