PA urges donor countries to pay up

Palestinian Authority PM Salam Fayyad says donations necessary to help $1 billion PA fiscal deficit; Norwegian FM says Israel should transfer PA tax revenue.

 

The Palestinian Authority Thursday hailed as “important” a decision by the international donors to provide financial aid to the Palestinians, but urged the countries to channel the promised funds immediately.

Representatives of international donors met in Brussels Wednesday to discuss the financial crisis in the PA.

At the end of the meeting, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere urged the donors to ensure the contribution of $1 billion in assistance [to the PA] in 2012.

He also urged Israel to facilitate the transfer of tax revenues belonging to the PA.

The donor’s “Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee on Palestine” said after the meeting in Brussels that the global economic slowdown has created a $1 billion deficit in the PA’s budget.

It noted that at the beginning of this year the PA has “experienced a severe fiscal crisis, which threatens to become protracted given the recent and projected declines in donor assistance” and the situation could soon be “totally unmanageable.”

The committee appealed to Israel to “ensure monthly transfers to the PA in a predictable manner.”

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By KHALED ABU TOAMEH