RAMALLAH, Monday, April 03, 2023 (WAFA) – The cabinet today approved the fiscal year 2023 budget annex with a deficit of USD $360 million.

The cabinet approved the budget annex for the fiscal year 2023  and submitted it to President Mahmoud Abbas for approval to be annexed to the Budget Law, a step that came after the cabinet discussed the annexes to the Law on Emergency Budget and presented different possible scenarios for revenues and expenditures.

The budget, which has a deficit of $360 million, was approved as a cash emergency budget, and disbursements from the budget will be based on available cash flows from the Treasury, the cabinet stated while pointing out that Israel’s deductions from Palestinian clearance revenue increase the budget deficit to $610 million.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that as the amount of monthly Israeli deductions from Palestinian tax revenues increased to some 250 million shekels coupled with the drop in international funding to the budget, the government would pay the salaries of the public servants for March within a few days and would pay their salaries for April before the commencement of Eid al-Fitr holiday, and, therefore, had to obtain loans from banks for this purpose.

He reiterated that while Israel’s deductions from the Palestinian tax revenues and dwindling donor funding are designed to put pressure on the Palestinian people and leadership, the latter would not trade politics for money.

K.F.