Vehicle Customs Exemptions, 2018–2022

Episode No. (14)

·      The Palestinian government has enacted systems and laws to facilitate the lives of persons with disabilities by granting them customs exemptions on vehicles, which are guaranteed by all laws and international treaties, and the Ministry of Transport and Communications allocated number (31) to distinguish vehicles of persons with disabilities to facilitate their movement.

·      The Customs Exemptions Committee, based on the Ministry of Finance's response regarding the customs exemption instructions, issues new instructions intended to focus on benefiting from this exemption in favor of persons with disabilities, where it will specify a lump-sum amount for the customs exemption.

·      The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) carried out an audit of customs exemptions for the years 2018-2022, and it was found that there are observations and violations; we summarize some of them as follows:

·      The exempted vehicles that obtained customs clearance for persons with disabilities during the period from 1-1-2018 until 31-8-2022 amounted to: 2139 vehicles, while the beneficiaries of the customs exemption totaled 2615 persons, according to the Ministry of Social Development data, as follows: the number of persons who received the personal exemption reached 405 exemptions, and 412 persons received a renewal of a personal exemption, whereas the number of persons who received an exemption by proxy was 1205 beneficiaries, and the number who received a renewal of an exemption by proxy: 593 beneficiaries.

●      Exempted vehicles: Customs exemptions for persons with disabilities were concentrated in certain distinguished types of vehicles, where the value of the exemption for those vehicles constituted 25% of the total value of the exemptions.

·      The uppercap for granting thecustoms exemption: There is no upper cap for granting the customs exemption to persons with disabilities, compared with Jordan for example, which set a maximum of 12,000 Jordanian dinars for the customs exemption; the number of exempted vehicles in the State of Palestine that exceed this value amounted to approximately 323 vehicles.

●      The average customs exemption per vehicle: the average customs exemption for all vehicles that were exempted for persons with disabilities during the period 2018-2022 amounted to 45,260 shekels per vehicle, and referring to the General Administration of Customs data, it was observed that the number of vehicles whose value exceeds this average was 702 vehicles, out of 2139 vehicles that received the exemption during the period mentioned above.!

●      Exemption by proxy and the personalexemption: A large increase in proxy exemptions, where the percentage of proxy exemptions among vehicles was 62% of total exemptions, while the personal exemption percentage reached 34%!

●      The laws and regulations governing the customs exemption: there is a gap between the Traffic Law and the regulations organizing the customs exemption concerning licensing fees, with reliance on paying only 5 dinars as a substitute for licensing fees. The Traffic Law defined a person with a disability as someone with a disability percentage exceeding 60%, and when any person with a disability obtains a customs exemption from the Customs Exemptions Committee and does not have a disability exceeding 60%, the exemptions set out in the organizing regulations apply however they do not receive a license fee exemption from the Ministry of Transport and Traffic.

·       Exemptions granted based on direct observation: Some exemptions granted during the years 2018-2021 were granted based on direct observation by the Customs Exemptions Committee and not based on the local medical committee reports attached to the disabled person's file, and the number of approvals granted based on observation reached 455 exemptions!

●      Ministry of Transport and Communications data for vehicles registered to persons with disabilities:

1-    There are some vehicles registered with the Ministry of Transport and Communications under the category of persons with disabilities, carrying ordinary numbers! contrary to the instructions in force at the Ministry of Transport and Communications (number 31).

2-    There are vehicles registered in the ministry under the account of individuals with disabilities, but they are not present in the customs data, whether the exempted vehicles or those whose registration was removed!

●      The role of the medical committee in the decision to grant the exemption: It was noted that the Supreme Medical Committee issues recommendations through its decisions granting the customs exemption to some persons with disabilities, knowing that this is not within the committee's jurisdiction, thus exceeding its primary competence related to determining the degree of impairment!

●      Governance in committee operations: The Customs Exemptions Committee includes among its membership a member of the Supreme Medical Committee, which may lead to a conflict of interest when making decisions, since the local medical committee may refer the report to the Supreme Committee to decide on it, and then send it to the Exemptions Committee!

●      File archiving: Archiving of exemption files is done in an inappropriate manner, as there is no secure place to store them, noting that most exemption files are incomplete!

●      Rejection of exemption requests: Reasons for rejecting exemption requests submitted to the committee are not recorded in minutes, documents, or registers, noting that in most cases the person with a disability is summoned for direct observation and medical committee reports are not relied upon, which leads to difficulty in following up and verifying them!

●      Opinion: The data and reports show that there are positive efforts to improve the lives of persons with disabilities through customs exemptions, but there are gaps and procedural problems and some performance violations, as the report showed non-compliance and lack of transparency in some of these cases, which affect the effectiveness of the system. The government needs to improve coordination between laws and regulations to ensure the accuracy of medical assessments and to ensure that applications are recorded and followed up in a more organized and transparent manner!