Cabinet authorizes tax transfer to PA, minus pay-for-slay funds
The taxes and tariffs to be transferred to the PA amount to NIS 2.5b. ($700m.)
By LAHAV HARKOVA Palestinian employee paid by the Palestinian Authority gestures as he holds money after withdrawing cash from an ATM machine outside a bank, in Gaza City(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM)
The security cabinet approved the transfer of tax funds Israel collects for the Palestinians on Sunday, after the Palestinian Authority halted its suspension of cooperation with Israel that was meant to protest the possibility of Israeli sovereignty in parts of the West Bank.The cabinet also deducted about NIS 600 million ($200 million) from the full amount of taxes and tariffs collected, in accordance with the law requiring Israel to freeze the amount the PA pays to terrorists and their families.The “Pay for Slay Law,” passed in 2018, requires the government to deduct the amount the PA pays terrorists and their families from the taxes collected, and for the Defense Ministry to present an annual report on the PA’s terrorists salaries, which amounted to NIS 517.4m. ($156m.) in 2019.The taxes and tariffs to be transferred to the PA amount to NIS 2.5 billion. ($700m.)All imports to the PA go through Israeli checkpoints, and Israel collects VAT and tariffs for the PA, as per the Oslo Accords. Those funds are the largest source of income for the PA. Israel also collects income tax and health-insurance funds for Palestinians who work for Israelis.The PA stopped accepting money collected by Israel in protest of plans to act on US President Donald Trump’s peace plan that calls for Israel to apply its sovereignty to up to 30% of the West Bank. Though Israel suspended that plan in August, in light of the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates, the PA did not agree to renew cooperation with Israel until earlier this month.
