"When it comes to lack of credibility and deception by the minister of finance, the worst example concerns the fiscal deficit," Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz, who was minister of finance in the previous government, said on Channel 2's "Meet the Press" program last night, in a broadside against current Minister of Finance Yair Lapid.
Commenting on the deficit figures due to be released in January, Steinitz said, "The deficit is expected to be 3% of GDP. That's my estimate. Along comes a new finance minister and misleads an entire country, actually deceives the government and the country, saying that he received a difficult inheritance and that the deficit is going to be 4.9%, and then two days later corrects that to 4.65%.
"Lapid should apologize for it. No top Ministry of Finance official told Lapid in April that there was any basis for saying that the deficit was 5%, nor did Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer say so. It's going to be 3%, as I said before the election, so where did the new finance minister get his number from?
"The damage was not done to me, but to the State of Israel. He caused panic among the public, a downgrading of Israel's domestic credit rating, and then he has to increase taxes with a deficit like that. He owes an apology to the country, not to me. What ensured that the deficit would be 3% was the trapped profits law and the taxation package that we introduced in the previous government," Steinitz said.
Of Lapid's vocal opposition to the plan to build a new Prime Minister's Office and prime ministerial residence combined, and to buy a personal aircraft for the prime minister and the president, Steinitz said, "I don't recall an instance of a government minister who is also a party leader slamming the prime minister is such a way. Most European countries have an aircraft for the leader of the country, and it's a security failure that we don't have one. Lapid's behaviour was inappropriate and populist."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 22, 2013
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