Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Al-Monitor · 2013
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the PA salary crisis, arguing it reflects a structural fiscal problem: the PA's tax base cannot support a 4.5 million-person government, and Israel's control over clearance revenues (60-70% of PA revenue) makes salary delays a political instrument embedded in the occupation's architecture.
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the PA salary crisis, arguing it reflects a structural fiscal problem: the PA's tax base cannot support a 4.5 million-person…
Editorial summary — the full article is published by Al-Monitor and cannot be reproduced here. What follows is an account of the subject written afterwards, not the original text.
The Palestinian Authority's ongoing salary crisis — with civil servants in both the West Bank and Gaza periodically facing delayed or partial payments — reflects a structural fiscal problem that cannot be resolved through emergency donor assistance alone. The PA's revenue base is inadequate to support the payroll of a government serving 4.5 million people without the productive economy that a state with full sovereignty would develop. Israel's control over clearance revenues — the taxes collected at Israeli ports on Palestinian imports — gives Israel a powerful tool for pressuring the PA: withholding or delaying these transfers, which constitute 60-70% of PA revenue, creates immediate fiscal crises. The salary crisis is therefore not merely a financial management problem but a political instrument embedded in the occupation's architecture.
Topic: Palestinian Economy — PA salaries · fiscal crisis · politics — Text © Al-Monitor — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source