"One thing should be understood: the business sector develops the economy, and we need its tax base. My guiding principle has always been the attempt to lower the tax level. We haven’t always succeeded. Last year, we were forced to raise taxes. Minister of Finance Yair Lapid and I have decided to ease this, and I tell you that we will lower taxes in 2015," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from the Knesset dais on Wednesday, during a plenum discussion called by MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) on the NIS 37 billion budget reserve.
"In the end, people take risks on all kinds of initiatives because they want to profit. It's their right to make money, that's the most important thing to ensure that deficits won't balloon and for us to have a healthy and growing economy."
Commenting on the deficit, Netanyahu said, "The deficit is NIS 38 billion, 3% of GDP, and we naturally want to reduce it. The deficit-GDP ratio, which is the sum of all sins, which was over 110%, is, a decade later, 70%. This is a significant reduction and the opposite of what happened in most European countries. We had responsible management, which prevented the deficit from ballooning. It's not for nothing that we win praise. It happens that you create a deficit one year, but then you correct it the following year."
Herzog: The government is an asylum
Leader of the opposition, Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog said in response, "This government resembles an insane asylum that doesn’t know what it is doing. This government is an expert in establishing committees; it has more committees than the names of people who obtained a Spanish passport. If you're close to the right places, there is no budget hole; just ask the settlers. You promised to help the middle class, but 38% cannot make ends meet. You cut the child allowance, you raised real estate value, and drove families into poverty."
As for equal service in the IDF, Herzog said, "This is the ultimate hypocrisy. No one mentions that service in the Yeshivot Hesder units is just 16 months instead of 36 in the rest of the army, and no one says anything. On top of that, they receive stipends that almost equal a full salary. There is only one way to achieve real change, and that is to take courageous diplomat action, but with your record of hesitation and evasion in decision-making, you probably won't do it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 13, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014