"Clearly, every country developing well and rapidly has a sound tax system," Byrd said. "How quickly one is developed for Afghanistan remains to be seen. In a famine situation and crisis, you have got to go easy."
Three Afghan commercial banks do business in Kabul. All struggle to survive on the limited flow of money coming from Afghan businessmen based abroad, General Secretary Faiz said. None of them offers credit or savings services. Resurrecting the central bank may help, though it hasn't had much recent practice.
"We haven't got any credit ? to support local businesses," said Faiz, who has worked at the central bank for 35 years. "During the Taliban, it was too difficult to see whether our clients were creditworthy or not."
The bank has endured hard times before. Under Soviet rule, it maintained an official exchange rate of about 60 afghanis to the dollar, compared with the unofficial rate of 1,500.
After the Soviets were driven from the country, the bank remained open. One major task was guarding a 50-pound hoard of ancient gold in the basement. The treasure disappeared shortly before the Taliban took over in 1996.
Under the Taliban, activities at the bank's 22 branches were limited to such basic operations as bill payments and foreign-exchange transactions. It also served as a bank for the Taliban military.
"Most of the money we gave out was to purchase military equipment," Faiz said. "The Taliban were not very good at keeping track of their transactions."
"Our future role will depend on the security and stability in Afghanistan," he said. "When the fighting stops, the bank will function well again, and I'll be in the position to tell you what my role -- and its role -- will be. Now, I can't."
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