In an unusual move, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett arrived today (Sunday) at the office of Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman to discuss the plan to lower the cost of living.
According to government sources, the meeting was lengthy and was discussed in several steps.
As reported this morning in "Israel Today", the parties discussed the introduction of the import reform and its expansion to meat and poultry products.
Also speaking of income tax relief - negative income tax for the weaker classes as well as relief for middle class income tax (by giving income tax credit points).
In addition, the Treasury is considering extensively lowering tariffs and working with exclusive importers in order to increase competition from imported products.
Bennett-Lieberman Program, Photo: Yoav Dodkevitz
The government's partial participation in the increase in the electricity tariff was also discussed, so that it will rise at a moderate rate of more than 5.7%.
In addition, the possibility of lowering the price of fuel to the previous price was raised by lowering the excise tax.
As you may recall, the price of a liter of fuel last week jumped to NIS 6.71, a record of seven years.
As will be recalled, at this morning's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Bennett announced: "In the coming days, we will present to the public a series of measures designed to alleviate the cost of living in the country."
The prime minister added: "I hope that soon there will be a line, especially in food prices. Some containment measures have already been taken, in front of the marketing chains and importers, and I would like to commend the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Economy for that."
Bennett: "We will present to the public a series of measures designed to alleviate the cost of living" // GPO
As you may recall, Bennett's reference, which was the first to raise prices, came amid public outrage over the intention of many companies to price their products.
Due to the storm, Finance Minister Lieberman and Economy Minister Orna Barbibai sent a letter to those companies that intended to raise prices, warning them not to take action.
As a result, the companies withdrew at least in part from the intention to raise prices, including Osem, which announced that it would cancel the planned increase after announcing that it would only postpone it after Passover.
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