| | Afghans battle rising prices FT.com
11/15/2007
By Jon Boone in Kabul
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Life has not been good to Khan Ali, an Afghan civil servant who lost a leg in a rocket attack in his country’s civil war.
As the bitter Afghan winter sets in, it is about to get a whole lot worse for a disabled man struggling to feed his family of six as soaring prices, particularly for fuel, are fast outstripping his government salary of just $50 (34, £24) a month.
The rapid rises in the price of staples such as flour, rice and cooking oil are also hindering Afghanistan’s efforts to halt bribery, with underpaid civil servants often having little choice but to use their positions to extort kickbacks.
So precarious are Mr Ali’s finances that he goes straight after work in the ministry of transport to a bridge in Kabul, where he tries to sell mobile phone top-up cards. “It’s not much, but an extra 150 Afghanis [$3] makes a big difference,” he says. He has been doing this for the past 10 weeks.
In the past fortnight, traders in Kabul’s bazaars say the price of flour has jumped by 20 per cent, with a 49kg sack costing $20.
Like the rest of the world Afghanistan is being hit by the rising price of oil. But the effects are particularly harsh on a country that imports nearly everything. Pakistan’s state of emergency has caused a further dramatic rise in prices, officials at the commerce and industry ministry say. Drivers say their trucks are being prevented by Pakistani border guards from crossing into Afghanistan.
According to Abdul Rahim Zalmai, chief executive of New Afghan Petroleum, Iran has cracked down on the outward flow of cheap diesel, intended for consumption in Iran. Moreover, Mr Zalmai says: “Afghanistan gets a lot of petrol products from central Asia, where the supply is controlled by just 10 traders who can decide among themselves to increase prices.”
At a time of widespread disillusionment with the government of President Hamid Karzai, the higher prices also present an additional hurdle for reform.
Poorly paid civil servants face what some see as added incentives to corruption.
Even before the price increases, the United Nations had expressed doubts about whether a reform of civil service salaries – which range from $80 to $650 a month – would have a significant effect on reducing corruption in the short term.
But for one public servant at least, taking bribes is out. “I know people who do that, but I would rather sell phone cards,” says Mr Ali. “I do not want to feed my children by money which is haram [forbidden in Islam].”
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