Palestinian Legislative Council ratifies general budget

The Palestinian Legislative Council with a slim majority ratified the 1998 budget for the Palestinian government despite the suspicions of some deputies in the budget committee over taking its decision in this regard.

During a private exceptional committee meeting held by the council in Ramallah, 36 deputies voted for the draft budget while 22 were against it, and six deputies refrained from voting.

The budget and financial affairs committee affiliated with the council, presented a report about the Palestinian budget, which was expected to be presented to the legislative council in August of last year. The problem of not presenting the budget to the council was one of the reasons the council threatened to hold a no-confidence vote against the Palestinian government.

One member of the parliamentary budget committee suspected the report of the committee, pointing out that they did not vote collectively, where deputy Youssed El-Shanti said that only five of the eight committee members attended the last meeting and only two approved the report.