PalTel reports 13.4% fall in net income in H112

Palestine Telecommunications (PalTel) announced that its first-half revenues were essentially flat, up by 0.3 per cent to reach US$258 million.

Net income fell to US$58 million, compared with US$67 million a year ago. The decline is mainly attributable to the devaluation of the Israeli shekel and as a direct result of the company’s decision to postpone the 50 per cent tax exemption for two years in response to a request by the government in order to alleviate the public financial crisis.

Another factor is the new income tax bracket of 20 per cent imposed this year by the government compared to 7.5 per cent the year before. As a result of the fiscal crisis in the public sector, the tax authorities in Palestine have declared a new tax scheme raising the corporate tax rate from 15 per cent to 20 per cent starting January 2012.

Mobile subscribers grew by 7.8 per cent to stand at 2.61 million at the end of H112 compared with 2.42 million at the end of 2011, and grew by 12.9 per cent compared with the end of H111 where the total number of subscribers numbered 2.31 million. 89.9 per cent of subscribers at the end of June 2012 were prepaid with the remaining 10.1 per cent being comprised of post-paid users.