extreme poverty lines.<sup>25</sup> Eligibility for the beneficiaries is determined by a Proxy Means Test (PMT) based on household expenditure and consumption data, including 34 variables related to “characteristics of the household head (gender, health, and disability status), marital status (divorced, widowed), household size and composition (children, elderly), employment status, assets (cars, livestock, and property including condition and building materials), and health of household members” (Wong et al 2019, 12). Participating households receive cash transfers quarterly of between NIS 750 and NIS 1,800<sup>26,27</sup> directly into their bank accounts. In addition to the CTP, the MoSD administers a number of other cash assistance programs including cash assistance to orphans and distressed families, cash assistance to discharged government employees, and emergency cash assistance for women. Near-cash social assistance includes food assistance/daily rations to the beneficiaries.

# **2.4.2. Indirect subsidies**

**A fundamental characteristic of the West Bank and Gaza’s energy supply is its reliance on imports, particularly from Israel, Jordan, and the Arab Republic of Egypt.** Almost all fossil fuels are imported.

## **Electricity**

**Residents of the West Bank and Gaza rely on imported electricity, primarily from Israel.** The imported share is about 99 percent of total supply in the West Bank and 64 percent in Gaza.<sup>28</sup> The Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority (PENRA) is responsible for provision of electricity and for energy policy formulation. There are five electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) and a single buyer of electricity, the recently established Palestinian Electricity Transmission Company (PETL). The PETL sources electricity from the Palestine Power Generation Company (PPGC), Israel, and other neighboring countries. In Gaza, the Palestine Electric Company (PEC) operate the Gaza Power Plant at partial capacity.

**The current electricity tariff structure for domestic consumers (Table 2.4) was promulgated in 2017 in Article 5, Ministerial decision N 03/137/17.** It applies in all regions of the Palestinian Territories except for residents of Jericho and the Palestinian Jordan Valley. Access to the electricity is widespread with 98 percent of the PECS survey respondents in all the regions of the Palestinian Territories reporting having access in 2017. Most consumers (approximately 65 percent) consume in slab 2 (161-250 kWh) and slab 3 (251-400 kWh) of the tariff structure.

**Table 2-4 The price of electricity per kWh for domestic consumers ranges between 0.458 and 0.6731 in the West Bank and Gaza**

Price of electricity by consumption slab, West Bank and Gaza

|**Consumption slabs**|**Price**|
|---|---|
|**(kWhper month)**|**(NISper kWh)**|
|1- 160|0.458|

> 25 As of its 2017 Annual Statistical Report, the MoSD (2018) estimated the extreme poverty line at NIS 1,970 per month and the national poverty line at NIS 2,470 per month for a family of two adults and three children, with the specific amount determined by the PMT.

> 26 Ministry of Social Development (Jan 2018); Ministry of Social Affairs (Jan 2017); The Office of the European Union Representative (Oct 2019); The World Bank (Dec 2018).

> 27 The specific amount depends on households PMT score.

> 28 <u>https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/westbankandgaza/brief/securing-energy-for-development-in-west-bank-and-gazabrief</u>

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