Taxing times under the Taliban

A man paying taxes at a branch of Afghanistan’s central bank in Kabul, Afghanistan. — Elise Blanchard/The New York Times

HE is the Taxman of Kabul, a bearded, black-turbaned Talib with a genial manner and the calculating mind of a computer-savvy accountant.

As director of the Taliban’s Taxpayers Services Directorate, Abdul Qahar Ghorbandi has the unenviable task of raising revenue for the government of a wretchedly poor, isolated nation.