Ramallah - Ma'an - The Palestinian minister of planning, and deputy minister of the treasury, Dr Samir Abu 'Aisha, has held a press conference on Wednesday, in which he detailed, in figures, the aid that the current Palestinian government has received so far. The cumulative aid has mounted to $318 million, most of which has come through the presidency, in cooperation with the government. Three million was kept abroad for certain needs, such as medical treatment abroad.
The EU sent financial aid directly to the employees, covering those whose salaries are below 2000 NIS and part-payments to those with salaries below 2500 NIS.
$66.5 million entered through Rafah crossing with ministers and PLC members.
So far, $207 million of the civil services employees salaries for 8 months have been paid. The cumulative salaries owed are $1,755,000,000.
Abu 'Aisha added that the military services employees have received 46% of their salaries, which, in total, mounted to $ 1,362,000,000.
In general, the public sector's employees have now received 59% of their salaries, some $3,127,000,000.
Israel is currently withholding $550 million of tax revenue from the PA.
The minister directly accused the union of public sector employees of threatening those who want to go back to work. The strike has also resulted in treasury employees failing to issue official documents for Palestinian importers and exporters, which negatively affected the Palestinian economy. He referred to the fact that the lack of such official documents had resulted in great losses for exporters, in some cases, up to 20,000 NIS.
The Palestinian minister also held the previous government responsible for the EU suspending their support, as they had appointed 25,000 employees in the time between June 2005 and March 2006.