Finance Minister Katz: 2021 Budget Framework Ready

The budget framework for 2021 has been completed, Finance Minister Yisrael Katz announced on Motzoei Shabbos.

Katz said he will present the framework itself, as well as a package of arrangements and extensive economic reforms to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and to the rest of the coalition.

The draft will be put to a government vote by mid-December, Katz said, urging all parties to rise above the politicking and back the plan to kick-start the Israeli economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, and to avoid new elections.

Israel’s budget has been one of the key points of contention between Netanyahu-led Likud and Gantz’s Blue and White.

While the coalition was supposed to pass a budget in its first 100 days, it instead approved an extension, which is set to run out in late December.

Likud and Blue and White could not reach an agreement on whether to pass a budget for one or two years, with Gantz seeing this as a sign that Netanyahu could be looking to sabotage their rotation in the prime minister’s office.

This week, the issue once again came to the forefront amid reports that Israel could be set for another election.