The government is expected to discuss the Treasury's proposal for a separate budgetary framework for the fight against Corona in the amount of NIS 90 billion tomorrow • Inside: the grants and supplement to the health system

Will Passover come before the holiday? The government is expected to discuss tomorrow (Sunday) the Finance Ministry's proposal to allocate a separate budgetary framework of the state budget totaling NIS 90 billion to the overall struggle for the budgetary implications of the spread of the Corona epidemic. The proposed framework includes NIS 2 billion intended to finance the NIS 500 grant promised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to families, senior citizens and the disabled.

Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Director General of the Ministry of Health // Photo: GPO

In addition, the Treasury proposes to allocate NIS 50 billion from the framework to increase spending in the current budget, of which NIS 10 billion will be allocated to the Ministry of Health budget, and NIS 18 billion will be allocated to finance national insurance expenses.

If the ministers approve the increase in the budget, the National Insurance Institute may still be able to pass before the holiday to Passover.

Increasing the budgetary framework will be done in the framework of a bill of law amending the Basic Law: the state economy. In addition to increasing the current budget framework of NIS 50 billion, which will be implemented as part of a separate budget box from the state budget, the ministers will also be asked to increase the repayment of government debt by NIS 40 billion, which is required to finance the budget deficit, which is expected to reach NIS 90 billion.

The separate budget box will be eight percent of the continuing budget, 1/12 of the 2019 budget, which is the 2020 budget framework, in the absence of a fixed and approved state budget.

As a result of increasing the budgetary framework to finance the struggle in Corona, the actual budget in 2020, which originally stood at NIS 400 billion, will swell to NIS 450 billion.

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Spending on the budget box that is separate from the current state budget of $ 50 billion will be without restrictions on the ongoing budget.

The separate budget box also includes funding for the various grants, the Adaptation Grant for those aged 67 and over, the Special Aid Grant for the self-employed, and another NIS 7 billion for the payment of unemployment benefits to more than one million unemployed persons and employees who were paid leave.

Prime Minister Netanyahu promised this week to deliver NIS 500 for families before Passover - for every child, up to four children up to the age of 18, and up to a maximum of NIS 2,000 per family.

Before the Sabbath began, it became clear that Social Security Director Meir Spiegeler had announced to the Prime Minister's Office that the grant would not be passed on to seniors and families with children, as the government had not yet approved the emergency regulations.

According to Spiegeler, even if the government approves the regulations at the cabinet meeting on Saturday night or Sunday - the gift of Passover will not be possible before Passover for technological reasons.

If the government approves the separate budget box tomorrow, Social Security will make a major effort to pass the grant before the holiday, but the technical restrictions may only allow the amount to be transferred during the Passover week.

One million new unemployed from the beginning of March are expected to receive unemployment benefits of NIS 2,000 before the holiday, one-third of the unemployment benefit totaling up to NIS 6,000 for each March.