Data-center law in State of Palestine

Decree-Law No. 13 of 2009 (General Electricity Law), arts. 1, 3, 17, 32

Effective 2009-04-23 · Applies to both

Article 1 defines a “Private Electricity Project” (المشروع الكهربائي الخاص) as any electrical project operating to produce electric power for private use, including private electricity generators. Article 3 states that the Law's objectives include organizing and developing Palestine's electricity sector.

Article 17(1) requires that electricity generation and the establishment of generation stations “for public purposes” be carried out only by companies licensed for that purpose by the Energy Authority, and bars a single company from monopolizing electricity-generation licenses. Article 32 penalizes generating, transmitting, or distributing electricity without an Energy Authority license.

A natural person who commits that violation faces imprisonment of six months to two years and a fine of up to 15,000 Jordanian dinars, or either penalty, plus confiscation of the electrical installations used. A corporate offender faces a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 Jordanian dinars plus the same confiscation. The Decree-Law took effect from its date of issuance, 23 April 2009.

Source: Full text of law

Decree-Law No. 31 of 2021 (amending Law No. 7 of 1999 Concerning the Environment), arts. 19, 64 bis

Effective 2021-10-13 · Applies to both

The amended Article 19(1) directs the Environmental Quality Authority to set, with the relevant bodies, standards controlling air-pollutant proportions that could harm public health, social welfare, or the environment, and requires every facility established in Palestine to comply with those standards, giving an existing facility up to three years to bring itself into conformity.

Article 19(2) separately prohibits violating the technical standards and controls issued for handling climate-change-driven environmental changes and violating the regulations and instructions issued under the Law. A new Article 64 bis penalizes a violation of Article 19 with imprisonment of six months to three years and a fine of 500 to 3,000 Jordanian dinars, or either penalty. The Decree-Law took effect from its date of issuance, 13 October 2021.

Source: Full text of law

Law No. 1 of 1998 on the Encouragement of Investment in Palestine, as amended, arts. 22-23, 43-44

Applies to private

Article 22 exempts an approved enterprise's fixed assets from customs duties, provided they are brought in within the period the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency sets when approving the fixed-assets list. Article 23 grants tiered income-tax rates to an Agency-approved, licensed project: zero percent for agricultural projects generating income directly from land cultivation or livestock, five percent for five years, and ten percent for a further three years.

Article 43 excludes several sectors from these tax incentives by name, including electricity projects of various types and telecommunications and telecom services, alongside commercial projects, insurance companies, banks, real estate projects, and companies holding a Council of Ministers concession that operate as a monopoly.

Article 44 fines an investor who gives the Agency false information to obtain the incentives an amount of 2,000 to 5,000 Jordanian dinars and withdraws the incentives from the date they were granted. Article 47 ties the Law's entry into force to a fixed period after Official Gazette publication rather than stating a specific commencement day.

Source: Full text of law