The service is professional, he says, though the paperwork he receives does not bear the name of state-owned power company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, which provides the electricity, but instead carries the printed logo of the Taliban.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the strictness of Taliban regarding implementation of their rules and regulations, I think they raise more from tax collection than the Afghan government,\u201d said Mohammaddin, a resident of the district outside Kunduz city, which is largely under Taliban control despite repeated operations by government forces to try to push the insurgents back. \u201cThey have proper tax collection and people cannot disobey them in areas they control.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How much of Afghanistan is under effective Taliban control is disputed, but there is little doubt it has been growing and the insurgents are increasing their presence in the everyday lives of millions of ordinary Afghans such as Mohammaddin.<\/p>\n
According to data from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission published last week, the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has control or influence over 65 percent of the population but only 55.5 percent of Afghanistan\u2019s 407 districts, less than at any time since the Taliban was driven from power in 2001. The Taliban says it controls 70 percent of the country.<\/p>\n
As the insurgents have won ground, levies on land and day-to-day economic activities have added to funds raised from illegal mining and the drug trade, allowing the Taliban to bolster its credentials as a government-in-waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taliban have the power to just easily extort however much they want but that\u2019s not quite what they do. They try to look and behave like a state,\u201d said Ashley Jackson, author of \u201cLife Under the Taliban Shadow Government\u201d, a study published this year by the British-based Overseas Development Institute.<\/p>\n
The Taliban has tended to take over two traditional Islamic levies: zakat, an obligation on Muslims to donate 2.5 percent of their income to the poor; and ushur, a 10 percent tax on harvests or produce taken to market.<\/p>\n
In addition, electricity and mobile phone bills, which the insurgents collect in return for leaving power pylons and phone masts alone, and small levies on businesses selling daily necessities such as bakeries or flour mills, weave Taliban authority firmly into everyday life.<\/p>\n
Wahid Tawhidi, a spokesman for Breshna Sherkat said the group estimated it lost around 5 million afghani ($66,500) a year from payments diverted to the Taliban, particularly in the provinces of Kunduz, Baghlan, Helmand and Kandahar. But it considered itself a national power provider that had a duty to ensure equal service to all parts of the country, he said.<\/p>\n
Ahmad, 37, who lives in the Taliban-controlled district of Dasht-e Archi, outside Kunduz, but owns a grocery shop in the city, which is under government control, says he pays 5 afghani (7 cents) per box of items in his shop, a total of around 600-700 afghani a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what they call it, but I pay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shahussain Murtazawi, spokesman for the President\u2019s Office in Kabul, said the Taliban still depended on foreign support from countries such as Pakistan and income from drugs and illegal mines, but acknowledged that the insurgents\u2019 ability to levy taxes was a reality in swathes of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately we often receive complaints about Taliban\u2019s extortions and forcefully imposed taxes on people living in Taliban-controlled areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alongside courts, which even many people in government-controlled areas consider more reliable and fair than the official justice system, taxation is at the heart of Taliban efforts to build a state-in-waiting.<\/p>\n