The Ministry of Finance said on Monday that it has finalized the plan to pay two months' worth of owed salaries to government employees.

Earlier the government said that it would pay the salaries for three months owed to the employees.   

The ministry said technical issues in the system are the reason for the delay in payments.  

“The reason for the delay of payments was that we were working on a scale of the salaries, as there is a lot of imbalance in the payments. We have started work and are forming a plan that will include the salaries of all employees,” said Ahmad Wali Haqmal, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry.  

The government employees expressed concern over their economic difficulties and called on the government to provide their monthly salaries as soon as possible.  

Abdul Rafiq is a teacher at a public school in Kabul. Rafiq said that he has not been paid for the past four months. 

“I have been teaching for the past 40 years but now I work in a store for 1,000 Afs per week. I live in a tough situation,” he said.

Economists say that the government could provide funds for civilian employees. 

“I think we don’t have a problem in the ordinary budget because the expenses of the military and Education Ministry have dropped and the government’s expenses have significantly dropped and we don’t have development projects either,” said Sayed Masoud, an economist.