Palestinian Minister of Finance: 2017 Budget Set at $4.48 Billion

Palestinian Authority Finance Minister Shukri Bishara.

Ramallah, 28 Rabiul Awwal 1438/28 December 2016 (MINA) – Minister of Finance and Planning Shurki Bishara Tuesday told the Palestinian cabinet that 2017 budget has been set at $4.48 billion, Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

He said $4.1 billion will go for current expenditures and $350 million for development.

However, the budget will have a deficit of $465 million or $39 million a month not counting expected delays of $300 million, which means the government will have to adopt austerity measures to cover the gap in finances by cutting down on monthly expenditure, said Bishara.

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According to the budget, wages and salaries are expected to increase by 3 per cent in comparison to 2016 and revenues are expected to reach around $3.4 billion, up 6 per cent from 2016 budget.

The cabinet said that donor aid has declined to a large degree in 2016 to reach $614 million when previous annual foreign aid was usually $1.1 billion.

Bishara told the cabinet that his ministry was able to make a leap forward in increasing revenues and cutting on expenditure in 2016.

He said revenues reached 12.95 million Israeli shekels ($3.36 million), which was 11 per cent more than what was anticipated in the budget.

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Clearance revenues reached 9 billion shekels ($2.33 billion), higher by 8 per cent than anticipated in the budget.

Expenditure was also higher than anticipated in the budget by 5 per cent, said the minister, breaking it into 7.8 billion shekels ($2 billion) for wages and salaries, which was 2.4 per higher. None wages expenditure reached 7 billion shekels ($1.8 billion) up by 5.7 per cent.

Bishara said the government also paid $370 million as part of outstanding debt to the private sector. (T/RS05/RS01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)