11 Oct 2020; MEMO: As the financial situation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) worsens, the PA asked Qatar to mediate for Israel to help end the crisis of unpaid tax revenues, Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Friday.
An informed source told the London-based newspaper that PA officials met Qatari officials in Doha and discussed the issue of unpaid tax revenues estimated at over a billion US dollars.
The source confirmed that the PA officials expected Qatari media to succeed in resolving the issue with Israel shortly.
In May, the PA stopped receiving the tax revenues, which were collected by Israel on behalf of the PA, after PA President Mahmoud Abbas had announced stopping all mutual agreements with Israel in response to Israel’s plans to annex the occupied West Bank.
Since May, the PA has been forced to borrow money from local banks in order to pay its employees’ salaries.
The PA has been suffering from the sharpest ever drop in foreign aid at a time when the Palestinian economy is undergoing the largest retreat due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The PA expects a budget deficit for this year of $1.4 billion.
