Palestine Economy Portal

Translated by Tamara Barakat

The Palestinian budget of 2015 revealed that the amount of money deducted by Israel under the “net lending” item reached more than a billion and 169 thousand shekels (around 300 million dollars), forming 11.4% if the Palestinian Government’s expenditure of 2015.

The deducted amount increased by 145 million shekels in comparison to 2014, as it reached a billion and 22 million shekels at that time (around 263 thousand dollars).  

The net lending is the amount of money that Israel deducts each month from the clearance revenues before transferring them to the Palestinian Government in order to cover the water, electricity, and sanitation bills due onto the Palestinian side. It also covers the medical transfer bills resulting from transferring patients by the Palestinian Ministry of Health to Israeli hospitals.

Data also revealed that the actual net lending deductions exceeded the projected amount in the budget by 146%.

The Civil Society team for Public Budget Transparency emphasized in an analytical study the danger of this item in the budget, how it has been exhausting the public budget’s resources for years, and the importance of decreasing and controlling it. Even though the majority of municipalities and electricity companies are supposed to be employing the system of advance payment now, the actual results on the ground indicate something else.

The Ministry of Finance estimated the net lending in the 2016 budget at 850 million shekels.