News / Reports

Local banks unable to give more loans to PA

Tuesday, 17 March 2015 1:35 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 18 March 2015 1:10 PM ]

Mona Kandil
Press TV, Ramallah

Palestinian local banks will not be able anymore to lend money to the Palestinian government which has had to borrow from banks to pay tens of thousands of employees part of their monthly payments.

The financial crisis is a result of Israel’s decision to withhold for the third consecutive month tax revenues it collects on the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian government was supposed to find other solutions earlier because it is not the first time that Israel withholds tax revenues

This financial deficit has drawn mounting complaints in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian government employees, security forces, and civil servants, who have seen their salaries reduced, expressed disappointment over more delay in their pays.

Meanwhile, experts say Israel’s decision is not only related to Palestinian move in joining the international criminal court, it has also been taken to subjugate their economy to a total state of blackout, where there’s no funding and there’s no flow of cash.

As long as the local banks are not able to lend to the Palestinian authority and as long as Israel refuses to transfer the tax revenues, the government will not be able to pay its civil servants’ salaries, or cover its regular operational expenses.

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