Minister of Finance: It is Currently Impossible to Discuss Figures or Percentages Regarding Salaries

Exclusive SadaNews Economy - On Saturday, Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Estafan Salama stated that the government is making efforts to secure regular salary payments, noting that it is not possible to discuss any percentage or figures regarding the upcoming payment at this stage.

Salama said in statements to "Voice of Palestine" radio, followed by the SadaNews Economy department: "It is early to talk about figures or percentages, but we are trying to ensure there is a sufficient minimum that helps employees to endure."

Regarding the amount of withheld clearance funds by the occupation, Salama noted that it recently reached 5.7 billion dollars, which constitutes 68% of total revenues, indicating that the government is managing financial matters with only about 10% of its revenues that depend primarily on three sources: current revenues, a part of which is allocated primarily to servicing public debt, foreign aid, and borrowing from banks.

He added: "We have reached the maximum limit of borrowing, but we are trying to find different solutions for borrowing, even partially from banks, to secure a portion of the salary."

In response to a question posed to the minister regarding why the government has not adopted a proposal to set a maximum limit on salaries, he said: "This would not make a significant difference. We conducted studies, for example, the difference between paying the minimum of two thousand shekels and disbursing fifty percent of the salary is (120) million shekels, so the gap is small," emphasizing that any amendment would not make a significant change. He added: "If we set a cap of (5) thousand shekels, the difference might only be (10) million shekels, and that is why we are trying to create a balance on this issue; if the difference were significant, we would have gone in that direction."

An economic expert commented to "SadaNews" on this specific point, saying: "It is true that adopting a maximum salary limit will not leave a significant numeric impact, but those who earn above 10,000 shekels comprise about 5% of employees, and these are influential individuals whose interests the government does not prefer to jeopardize."

He added, "If providing a payroll expense of 10 million shekels monthly means saving 120 million shekels annually, that is a considerable amount amid the severe crisis and the collapse of essential services."

Regarding the application "Yabous," Salama noted that it will start as a pilot phase in four institutions by mid this month, while its implementation for all employees will be by the end of the month, indicating that the wallet cap will be (500) shekels, covering the payment of water, electricity, internet, and communication services.

He pointed out that there is a plan to expand the basket of services in the second phase of the application, to include, for example, municipal services and some government services.

The Minister of Finance said: "We have finished developing "Yabous," and we have raised the application on the 'Apple' and 'Google Plus' platforms, and we are in the final stages of signing agreements with (16) Palestinian companies in the water, electricity, communication, and internet sectors, and in the coming days, we will sign agreements with those companies."

He continued: "We will launch the pilot phase around mid-month, approximately in a week to ten days, and we will launch four institutions as a pilot phase to ensure that the application does not have any technical problems," noting that these institutions include the Ministry of Jerusalem since the application bears the name of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Governorate, the Civil Defense, and the Customs Control, with a sample of approximately 3000 employees to ensure the application works without issues.

He added: "Every government employee will be required to register on the Palestine Monetary Authority platform (ip+) to ensure they are the person concerned, and we will require government employees to download the application on their mobile phones, input some information such as ID number, after which the Ministry of Finance will set a preliminary financial cap of 500 shekels that allows public sector employees to pay their service bills (water, electricity, internet, communications) to be deducted from their entitlements."

He continued: "This wallet assists public sector employees in these difficult conditions to meet essential requirements."

He noted that this is the first phase, as there is a plan in the next phase to expand the basket of services, to include, for example, municipal services, government services, and possibly other matters later on.

Regarding whether the e-wallet can benefit from fuel stations, Salama indicated that it is not available in this phase, but it is planned for inclusion in later stages. He added: "We are studying what services can assist public sector employees, and God willing, in the coming months, we will expand the basket of services."
It is worth mentioning that the payroll and similar salary expenses amounting to one billion and fifty million shekels monthly have burdened the Palestinian Authority, and there have been demands from donors for a necessary reduction.
The Ministry of Health had warned of a real collapse risk, indicating that the pharmaceutical stock crisis is serious, and is more dangerous than many believe, as over a third of the items in the essential drug list now have a zero balance, and more than half of the cancer medications have a zero balance.