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Kabul - Afghanistan will delay paying salaries to hundreds of thousands of civil servants next month because it does not have enough money, a finance ministry official said on Saturday.
The acknowledgment that it is now impossible to pay October salaries on time is one of the challenges facing new leader Asraf Ghani, who is to be sworn in as president Monday after months of turmoil following a disputed election.
Aside from the deadly fight with the Taliban insurgency, Afghanistan's fiscal crisis is the most immediate problem facing new leader Asraf Ghani, who is to be sworn in as president on Monday, and coalition partner Abdullah Abdullah.
Afghanistan's treasury now holds less than the 6.5bn Afghanis ($116m) needed to begin processing monthly salaries, said Alhaj Mohammad Aqa, director-general of treasury in the ministry.
He would not say exactly how much money the government had in its coffers, only that it was not enough to meet the payroll.
"Right now, we don't have that much," Aqa said.
Afghanistan has asked for $537m in emergency funds from the United States but so far has not received approval, Aqa said.
Even if that additional funding is approved within a week it's now too late to process the October payroll on time and government salaries will come at least one or two weeks late, he added.
