The Palestinian Ministry of Finance announced that it will today pay only partial salaries to most civil and military employees for the thirteenth month in a row.
“The date for paying public employees’ salaries is tomorrow, Tuesday, as follows: 80 per cent of the November salary for all employees, with a minimum limit of 2,000 shekels [$587],” the ministry said in a statement.
It added that it will pay five per cent of the employees’ overdue salaries for the previous period while the remainder of their salaries will be paid when the financial situation permits.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is suffering from a suffocating financial crisis due to the decline in Arab and international financial support and Israel’s withholding of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.
Over the past three years, Israel has deducted about 600 million shekels ($144 million) annually from Palestine’s tax revenues, which constitute about 60 per cent of the PA’s monthly income.
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