Customs evasion in the Palestinian territories and its impact on the Palestinian general budget. Analytical study during the period (1995-2020)

Abstract

This study aims at exploring the reality of customs duty evasion in Palestinian territories. Customs duty evasion is the crime of non-payment of customs duties that are imposed on imported goods. Such crime is practiced at all boarder areas and points all over the world and it is getting more developed due to the increasing advancement in all fields. This practice not only negatively affects Palestinian public budget, but it also undermines security and peacefulness of society and violates taxation fairness when tax-payers abstain from paying the due customs duties. This study seeks to identify the reality of the development of Palestinian public budget and its components in the period between 1995 and 2020 through answering the main question: “what is the reality of customs duty evasion in Palestinian territories? What are its effects on Palestinian public budget?” This study is divided into five chapters as follows: Chapter One handles the study problem and its background, explores the method and procedures of the study and identifies the methodology adopted in examining the study problem; the study has adopted the analytical descriptive methodology to determine the reality of customs duty evasion in Palestinian territories, and has used as well the measurement methodology to determine the effect of customs duty evasion on the Palestinian public budget and its components. Chapter Two explores the reality of customs duty evasion in Palestinian territories through using the theoretical framework and previous literature which has constituted a major reference to rely on to achieve this study. Chapter Three analyses the components of Palestinian public budget and its development within the period examined by the study (1995-2020). In addition, this chapter identifies the impact of customs duty evasion on Palestinian public budget, while Chapter Four discusses and analyses results of study hypotheses. Chapter Five is a concluding chapter which highlights the results concluded and main proposed recommendations. The significance of this study lies in the importance of the subject it deals with being one of the enriched studies that explores the crime of custom duty evasion in Palestinian territories. This study is also significant due to the lack of the studies that have discussed such crime and analyzed its impact on Palestinian public budget and its components. The study has concluded several results, mainly: First, there is an inverse correlation between customs duty evasion and public revenues i.e. increase in tax duty evasion leads to reduced public revenues; second, there is no statistical moral significance between developmental public expenditure and customs duty evasion; third, customs duty evasion has developed to be an established practice among citizens due to the general circumstances and different historical political eras witnessed in Palestinian territories. In conclusion, the study proposes several recommendations, mainly: customs duties should be reduced and proper facilitations should be offered to tax payers to encourage them to pay such duties; there shouldn’t be a large variation between customs duties as compared with neighboring countries, unless this is justified by economic motives; and finally, a sound financial policy should be adopted that can promote and advance economy taking into account conditions of all Palestinian society classes.