The draft economic arrangements bill, which will be attached to the 2025 budget, sets out the Ministry of Finance’s planned reforms for next year. The draft bill includes significant measures in the fields of finance, real estate, government companies and more. The draft does not include any news taxes to be included in the 2025 budget, such as the freezing of income tax brackets and National Insurance pensions and allowances, which will be promoted separately.
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A special tax on banks
The draft economic arrangements bill proposes that a committee be established to examine the imposition of a special tax on the banks in 2026 because of the banks’ high profits. This follows a special payment imposed on them in 2024 and 2025 totaling NIS 2.5 billion.
Ashdod Port privatization
In the draft economic arrangements bill the Ministry of Finance has revealed that it plans leading the privatization of Ashdod Port. An inter-ministry committee will be set up to promote the sale of the shares in Ashdod Port. The committee will submit its proposal for the privatization to Minister for Regional Cooperation David Amsalem within 60 days and he will bring the proposal to the ministerial committee on privatization within 90 days.
The economic arrangements bill also proposes that minister should not be allowed to intervene on the distribution of dividends by government companies and proposes amending the Government Companies Law in order to streamline the distribution of dividends to state coffers.
Another proposal is to adjust the school week to five days from six days in the state school system, so that the school week matches the work week. Such a measure would also help the education system cope with a shortage of teachers.
The draft economic arrangements bill also proposes closing five of the 31 government ministries, with the five ministries deemed superfluous. The bill also proposes tighter Ministry of Finance controls over the defense budget, in particular regarding salaries and pensions and mega umbrella agreements with municipalities for faster construction of housing.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 22, 2024.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.
