Finance Minister Smotrich Reveals Budget Plans

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich Monday released some of the details of his government’s proposals for the 2023 – 2024 state budget.

These include:
• A national infrastructure law that he said will allow the speeding up the implementation of infrastructure projects and cut their construction time in half.

• A “broad” housing plan led by increasing the supply of housing, among other things, through the incentive of the local government to prioritize housing projects.

• “Significant” steps to promote competition and reduce concentration – in the food and agriculture market, in banking, insurance, and automobile markets.

• A long list of steps to reduce bureaucracy and regulation for the business sector and the public. (Smotrich promised to remove excess regulation on food importers and adapt it to the European standard, cut the bureaucracy for hundreds of thousands of small businesses that pay the tax, and simplify the licensing mechanism for industrial establishments.)

• Steps to “streamline” the public sector – reducing the burden on the health system by streamlining the process of taking sick days and receiving prescriptions for medications.

• War on black capital – the economic plan includes many steps to fight economic crime. He promised to reduce the possibility of holding cash, which is the main factor that feeds the criminal organizations.