PA: No decision to stop paying electricity bills to Israel

Ibrahim Milhem, spokesman for the PA government in Ramallah, said that reports in the Israeli media that the Palestinians have decided to stop paying their electricity bills are "baseless and rumors.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian women walk past a money changer in the West Bank city of Ramallah February 16, 2010. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/File Photo (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN)
Palestinian women walk past a money changer in the West Bank city of Ramallah February 16, 2010. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/File Photo
(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN)
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday denied that it has decided to stop paying for electricity supplied to the Palestinians by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC).
Ibrahim Milhem, spokesman for the PA government in Ramallah, said that reports in the Israeli media that the Palestinians have decided to stop paying their electricity bills are “baseless and rumors.”
Earlier, the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported that the PA halted the transfer of payments to the IEC, which supplies electricity to several West Bank municipalities.
In the past three months, the PA’s debt to the IEC has grown by another NIS 300 million, and is now estimated at nearly $2b., the report said.
The PA reportedly instructed municipalities not to pay the electricity bills to Israel and to keep the money due to the financial crisis it’s facing because of its refusal to receive tax revenues from Israel, from which the payments to families of security prisoners and “martyrs” were deducted.