The Energy and Natural Resources Authority in Gaza has announced today the stoppage of one of the generators operating at Gaza’s sole power plant, worsening electricity supply and causing many cuts per day.

The authority said the generator would stop “because the Ministry of Finance in Ramallah continues to impose the Blue Tax on manufactured diesel used to run the generators”.

In a statement received by Safa News Agency, ENRA said, “The Ministry’s refusal to exempt Gaza from the Blue Tax is the reason why the generator will stop operating. This resulted in using 12.5 million Shekels from the company’s funds, in addition to the refusal of Banks associated with the Monetary Authority in Ramallah to give loans to the company to avert this crisis.”

#Turkey('s) Minister of #energy @BeratAlbayrak arriving in #gaza today. Will visit power plant to in an effort to tackle energy shortfall.

— Arik Agassi (@arikagassi) July 12, 2016

An Egyptian and an Israeli line providing Gaza with electricity have been experiencing some technical issues, the statement added “which will worsen the situation starting from this evening”.

The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah imposes the Blue Tax on manufactured diesel before it is sold to Gaza. According to the Economic Protocol Agreement, signed in Paris in 1994, Israel asked the price difference of the fuel consumed by Palestinians and that consumed by Israelis not to exceed 15%. The PA therefore imposed the blue tax to make up for the difference, which practically means fewer hours of electricity for Palestinians in Gaza.

(PC, SAFA)