The Palestinian Authority owes the Israel Electric Corporation 400 million shekels ($128 million) in unpaid electric bills for Palestinian residents, Minister in the Finance Ministry Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beytenu) said late Monday in response to a query by MK Orit Strock (Religious Zionist Party).
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Amar said that Israel would not forgive the debt and added that he had instructed the Israel Tax Authority to "coordinate a framework with the PA that would allow the debt to be removed gradually from the tax money Israel transfers [to the Palestinians]."
The IEC produces most of the electricity consumed by the Arab residents of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip. According to agreements between Israel and the PA, the PA is supposed to pay for its residents' electricity consumption.
Over the years, the Palestinians have amassed a massive debt for their electricity consumption, but the PA claims that it is unable to collect the money owed by residents who do not pay what they owe.
Israel has made a few attempts at plans to collect the PA's electricity debt. In 2017, a deal was reached that would allow Israel to deduct payments for the PA's outstanding electric debt from the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA.
In 2019, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense and finance ministers Naftali Bennett and Moshe Kahlon approved what was defined as a "special loan" to the PA, which was earmarked to help it pay the debt.
Recently, Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej (Meretz) announced that Israel needed to "take action to stabilize the PA, at least economically, even at the level of writing off debts."
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