Comparative Analysis of Government Financial Data: January 2018/2019

·       Revenues and expenditures (cash basis) and financing sources... for the month of January in 2019 and 2018
I reviewed the government financial data for the month of January 2019 posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance and Planning – Ramallah and compared it with the data for the same month in 2018, noting that the general budget for 2019 has still not been issued to date. It is likely that this will occur before the end of the current March at the latest, as an exceptional measure under the Budget Law, and in the event that the new government is not formed before the end of the current March, and in accordance with prevailing practices, it may be directed to be issued by the current government – the caretaker government – which originally prepared the general budget for 2019.

·       Below, I briefly present a comparison of the financial data for January 2019 and 2018....:
Total net revenues in January 2019 amounted to 1,260 million shekels (one billion two hundred sixty million shekels), a decrease of 110 million shekels from net revenues in January 2018... The decrease was in total domestic revenues, which fell by approximately 70 million shekels, and the decline came from domestic taxes in January 2019 by approximately 80 million shekels...

·       As for clearance revenues in January 2019, they decreased by approximately 10 million shekels compared with the same month in 2018...

·       As for total expenditures in January 2019, they amounted to 758 million shekels, a decrease from the same month in 2018 by approximately 193 million shekels... Salaries paid in January 2019 fell by 91 million shekels compared with the same month in 2018, with the value of these salaries in 2019 – January – amounting to 435 million shekels...

·       The value of transfer expenditures for January 2019 amounted to approximately 159 million shekels, a decrease from the same month in 2018 by approximately 100 million shekels...
As for the value of net lending, it amounted in January 2019 to approximately 96 million shekels, an increase from the same month in 2018 by approximately 37 million shekels...!!
Development expenditures in January 2019 amounted to approximately 18 million shekels, a decrease from the same month in 2018 by 10 million shekels..

·       As for the financing-required spending balance in January 2019, it amounted to approximately 484 million shekels... an increase from the same month in 2018 by approximately 94 million shekels... The value of external support for the budget in January 2019 amounted to approximately 94 million shekels... Net financing from local banks in that month of 2019 amounted to 114 million shekels.., and the value of overdue payments for goods in the same month of 2019 amounted to approximately 20 million shekels.....

-        It was observed from the financial data for January 2019 that an amount of 448,098,298.44 shekels was returned to the United States Consulate in Jerusalem in order to close the grant account.....!! It was also observed that amounts funded by the United States in 2018 for development expenditures amounted to 46 million shekels, while the budgeted and expected financing figure for 2018 from the United States was approximately 62 million shekels.....

-        These government financial data for January 2019 appeared before the Israeli occupation authorities seized amounts from the clearance bill totaling approximately $140 million.. which the Palestinian National Authority refused to accept any amounts from the Israeli occupation authorities that condition approval of the Authority’s spending allocations for these amounts, and this stoppage in delivering the monthly clearance bill amounts resulted in a decline in the Authority’s cash liquidity, since it is known that the Authority’s salaries are financed in their entirety from the clearance bill.. which constitutes more than 68% of the Palestinian Authority’s total revenues... in addition to the closure of financial assistance from the United States of America to the Palestinian National Authority... while Arab financial assistance remains limited to two countries: Algeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.. as appeared on the assistance page in the 2018 budget... The Palestinian Authority hopes that the so-called Arab safety net composed of Arab countries to assist the Palestinian Authority will be activated... noting that domestic revenues related to taxes for January 2019 declined markedly from the same month in 2018.....

-        I would like to point here to the problem of the increase in net lending in January 2019 compared with the same month in 2018 by 37 million shekels.... Net lending is defined as the amount that the Israeli side deducts from the clearance revenues to cover the accumulated electricity, water and sewage bills owed by local government units such as municipalities, local councils and joint councils..... and this indicates the continuation of these Palestinian local government bodies in accumulating Israeli water, electricity and sewage bills and not paying them.. and at the same time not collecting dues from citizens to cover these bills... which complicates the Palestinian Authority’s situation.. despite the Authority’s encouragement of local government bodies and its direction that bills be paid promptly and covered from dues owed by citizens... most local government bodies show great slowness in implementing that.... It is a continuing problem and the lack of cooperation of local government bodies with the system and procedures followed and the directions of the Palestinian National Authority is an undesirable and imprudent matter...!!.. and it exacerbates the Authority’s financial crisis... We hope that such a matter will cease!

-         Date : 16-3-2019