A special grant of 340 million shekels ($90 million) for West Bank settlements was included in the 2015-2016 state budget that was approved by the government early Thursday morning.

The grant, which was part of Likud's coalition agreement with Habayit Hayehudi and understandings with the Yesha Council, will be divided equally between the Defense Ministry and the Transport Ministry.

The budget specified 14 purposes for which the funds will be used, including road works and road security, development of national parks, access roads, tourism, security provisions for local authorities, public buildings and student villages.

The specific allocation of the funds, 240 million shekels of which will be transferred from the 2015 budget and 100 million shekels from the 2016 budget, will be administered by a team of directors-general from the Defense, Transport and Interior ministries.

Funds that are not allocated to the various ministries will not return to the treasury but will be transferred to the Interior Ministry's Population Authority as a separate budgetary item.

Last December, the Interior Ministry transferred a grant of 62 million shekels to regional councils in the territories, falsely claiming that the funds compensated the regional authorities for aid they would have been eligible to receive from the Jewish Agency if they were not over the Green Line.

Interior Ministry documents list the reason for the grant as “originally intended to compensate the communities that meet the criteria for receiving aid from the Jewish Agency, which are not eligible for aid because they are over the Green Line.”

However, the regional authorities do not meet the criteria for Jewish Agency aid because the Jewish Agency stopped handing out grants to young communities in 2003, due to financial difficulties.

All the same, the state continues to transfer hundreds of millions of shekels to the regional councils in the territories — despite a state undertaking to the High Court of Justice to cut the funding.

The grants received by regional councils in the territories include an Oslo grant (2.5 million shekels,) a security grant (37 million shekels,) a security needs grant (20 million shekels) and a “young settlement grant” for only some of the regional councils.

A 24 million shekel young settlement grant goes to the Megilot, Jordan Valley and Golan Heights regional councils and the Ma’aleh Ephraim local council. A 38 million shekel grant goes to the Gush Etzion, Hebron Hills and Binyamin regional councils. These are significant amounts for these regional authorities, which have a hard time creating real revenue.