Hamas movement on Wednesday condemned the Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to re-impose taxes on the Gaza Strip saying that it is aimed at undermining the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the enclave.
Hamas’s spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement on his Facebook page that the PA decision to reinstate the collection of taxes despite the disastrous situation in Gaza is “premeditated” and “politicized”.
Earlier in January 2018 Abbas re-imposed the value-added tax in the Gaza Strip by a presidential decree despite the deteriorating economic situation in the besieged enclave which was described by experts as the worst since 2007.
The taxes to be re-applied include taxes on crossings and on the income of citizens as well as the value-added tax.
What angers Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is that the PA government has in the recent months turned the besieged enclave into a source of revenues without any real or tangible contribution to ending the suffering of citizens.
Abbas had decided to exempt citizens of Gaza from all taxes following the internal division in mid-2007.
The value-added tax is an indirect consumption tax on the imported goods and services. The final consumer is the one who bears the cost.
The value-added tax was 1% when it was first applied then it was raised to 16% although according to the Paris Economic Protocol the Palestinian value-added tax is only allowed to be less than Israel’s by 2%.
