Al-Qawasmi: Citizens have the right to know where tax and customs money goes

Ramallah - Ofoq News - Lawyer Dr. Bassam Al-Qawasmi, founder of the Palestinian Collective, said that the relationship between the citizen and the ruling authority is based on a social contract under which the citizen abides by the laws and pays taxes, fees, and customs, in exchange for the authority’s commitment to providing public services, guaranteeing basic rights, and informing citizens of how to manage public money.

Al-Qawasmi added, in an interview with Ofoq News, that this contract requires the government to submit a detailed general budget that clarifies revenues and expenditures, enabling citizens to know the sources of public funds and their spending, noting that preparing, discussing, and approving the budget through an elected legislative council represents the basic oversight mechanism to ensure transparency and accountability.

He explained that the Palestinian citizen pays multiple taxes and fees, but, according to his description, he does not obtain sufficient detailed information regarding the aspects of their spending, considering that the total figures published for the budget are not sufficient to enable citizens to exercise their right to monitor public funds.

Al-Qawasmi gave the example of cigarette and fuel prices, asking about the distribution of the amounts paid by the citizen between the cost of the commodity and the taxes and fees imposed on it, and calling on the government to clarify how these amounts are calculated and the destinations to which the revenues go.

He pointed out that these questions gain additional importance in light of the difficult economic conditions that citizens are experiencing, including employees who receive incomplete salaries, in addition to citizens who face difficulties in fulfilling their financial obligations, and the resulting legal procedures.

Al-Qawasmi said that transparency in public money management is not limited to publishing total figures for revenues and expenditures, but rather requires the availability of detailed data that allows knowledge of the sources of revenues, including direct and indirect taxes, value-added tax, customs, fees for licenses and various transactions, and how spending is distributed among public sectors and services.

He added that the general budget, according to the concept he proposes, must be subject to real legislative discussion and oversight, so that the Legislative Council can discuss it and make comments on it before approving it, ensuring that the government is held accountable for its financial decisions.

In the context of his talk about the relationship between the citizen and the authority, Al-Qawasmi considered that the absence of regular legislative elections weakens popular control over the performance of the authority, stressing that the source of political legitimacy is the will of the people expressed in the ballot boxes.

Al-Qawasmi believes that addressing the imbalance in the relationship between citizens and authorities requires enhancing financial transparency, publishing details of the general budget, and enabling citizens to know the fate of the money they pay, in addition to activating legislative oversight and public accountability.