Khalid Payenda, Afghanistan’s Acting Finance Minister, has resigned and left the country after the Taliban captured key customs posts bleeding the administration of revenue.
Speaking to Bloomberg, finance ministry spokesman Mohammad Rafi Tabe said that Payenda has “resigned and left the country because Afghanistan is grappling with declining revenues after the takeover of the custom posts”.
“The deteriorating security situation” and travelling to be with his ailing wife abroad, were the other reasons Tabe gave.
It was not immediately clear where Payenda was going.
Taliban fighters have made rapid advances across Afghanistan in recent months as the United States and other foreign forces withdraw from the nation 20 years after they invaded.
Afghanistan has thirty-four (34) provinces in total and to date, nine (9) capitals have fallen to the Taliban.
Zaranj (August 6), Sheberghan (August 7), Sar-e-Pul (August 8), Kunduz (August 8), Taluqan (August 8), Aybak (August 9), Farah (August 10), Pul-e-Khumri (August 10), and Faizabad (August 11), have all been captured by the Taliban.
Fighting for Herat, the capital of Herat province in the west and Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand in the south is ongoing as of August 11.