UNCTAD [to 6 December 2014]
http://unctad.org/en/Pages/Home.aspx
Occupied Palestinian Territory loses at least $306 million per year in public revenue leakage to Israel, new study finds
UNCTAD/PRESS/PR/2014/063
Geneva, Switzerland, (03 December 2014)
The Occupied Palestinian Territory loses at least $306 million annually in leakage of customs, purchase and value added tax revenues that are not transferred to the Palestinian treasury by Israel, a new UNCTAD study suggests.
The study says that fiscal revenue loss amounts to 3.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 18 per cent of the tax revenue of the Palestinian National Authority.
The study, Palestinian Fiscal Revenue Leakage to Israel under the Protocol on Economic Relations, indicates that the leaked Palestinian public revenue would give the Palestinian National Authority greater ability to stimulate the economy and increase annual GDP by four percentage points and create additional 10,000 jobs per year.
In order for this leakage to be stemmed, the study makes recommendations to transform it into a more balanced framework consistent with Palestinian economic realities that have greatly changed since 1994. For example, it suggests modifying the Paris Protocol (1994), which remains the general framework governing Palestinian trade relations and economic and tax policies…