Press Statement

Date: 21st April, 2015 (No. 8\2015)

ICHR followed up on the implications of the General Budget Law of 2015 issued by the Parliamentary Bloc Change and Reform in the Gaza Strip. This law imposes a national solidarity tax, which will be in effect from 1st of April 2015 until 31st of December 2015 in the Gaza Strip. The law imposes additional taxes and fees on all goods and commodities that enter the Gaza Strip, including tobacco. Furthermore, the law imposes taxes on companies that have general shareholding and net profit that accedes more than one million dollars annually. The rate of the taxes imposed range between 1-10%, except for tobacco.

ICHR believes that the establishment of legislations and policies without following legal procedures, which manage the process of establishing laws, deepens the political and geographical divide in Palestine. Therefore, this law is in contradiction with the national agreements and understandings which led to the formation of the national consensus government whose main task is to unify the institutions of the State.

Furthermore, this law contradicts the principle of equality which is protected in the Palestinian Basic Law. It is also an unconstitutional law because its provisions are only applied in the southern governorates of the Gaza Strip. In addition, the approval of this law is enacted under very difficult conditions of which the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip go through such as the suppressive policies of the Israeli occupation, military siege, war repercussions and increase in poverty and unemployment (55%).

Accordingly, ICHR calls upon the Parliamentary Bloc Change and Reform, to immediately stop the implementation of the national solidarity tax law. ICHR also calls upon all concerned parties to cooperate to unite the Palestinian Legislative Council, to stop the establishment of legislations by one party, and to enhance the role of the national consensus government towards the Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.