Imad Rajabi – Palestine Economy Portal

Translated by Tamara Barakat

Data published by the Ministry of Finance on Sunday revealed that the overall amount collected by the Treasury in fuel taxes in 2015 reached 2.774 billion shekels, in comparison with the 2.474 billion shekels collected in 2014, thereby increasing by 12.1%.

The data showed that the Government anticipated that it would collect 2622 billion shekels, but its actual collection exceeded the anticipated number by 6%.

The citizens’ average consumption of fuels (petrol, diesel, kerosene, and gas) in all of Palestine’s governorates reaches around 75 million liters each month.

The prices of fuels witnessed a drop during the last year. The price of the barrel decreased to 27 dollars. However, the Palestinians were not much affected by this decrease due to the taxes Israel imposes on fuels, the most important of which is the “blue tax” that amounts to 3 shekels/liter, in addition to the VAT imposed by the Palestinian Authority, in accordance with the Paris Protocol signed on by the PLO and Israel in 1994.