Netanyahu Gets New Budget Plan, Still Under Wraps

Deep cuts in child allowances, government wages and defense, and a 1% increase in value-added tax were said to be featured in the budget plan, which aims at closing a 30 billions shekel deficit.

According to Calcalist, the Finance Ministry proposes NIS 14B in cuts during 2013 and an addition NIS 6B of cuts in 2014, and NIS 6B in additional tax revenues in both years. Those cuts include NIS 4B-5B from civil service spending, NIS 3B-4B from defense, an equal amount from child allowances, and NIS 2B-4B in infrastructure spending.

But the budget outline itself was still under wraps, and a spokesman for Lapid would say only that it calls for new taxes on luxury cars, luxury apartments and other luxury goods.

That comment prompted a contemptuous reaction from Opposition Leader Shelly Yacimovich, who described it as “the ridiculous, populist attempt to sell to the Israeli public that the solution to a deep deficit will come from taxing luxury cars is simply an insult to the intelligence of the nation’s citizens.”

She also accused Lapid of trying to cover up the hardship his austerity plan will cause the middle class and working people he professes to care so much about. “The upcoming meetings between the finance minister and prime minister are completely extraneous, as Netanyahu wrote the program himself and already authorized it exactly, even before the elections,” she said.

Lapid and Netanyahu were scheduled to continue their meetings on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a late-night meeting between Lapid and Histadrut Labor Federation Chairman Ofer Eini on Wednesday night, in which Lapid reportedly tried to elicit his support for lowering public sector wages, ended inconclusively.

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the April 12th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.