Knesset passes budget first reading as Ben-Gvir votes against

By Investor Empires On Dec 17, 2024

Last night, the Knesset passed the first reading of the 2025 budget by a narrow majority of 59 votes to 57, although National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the bill. The budget will now be discussed by the Knesset Finance Committee before being returned to the Knesset General Assembly for the second and third readings.

Ben Gvir and the other five members of the Otzma Yehudit party joined the opposition in voting against the budget. Ben Gvir said: “As long as the prosecutor is not dismissed and the government does not do the minimum in this regard, I will oppose the budget.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “It seems that Ben Gvir and his friends have completely lost direction. They voted against the budget that is considered crucial for victory, for reconstruction and for the army reservists. Ben Gvir is acting irresponsibly and is endangering the right wing.” “The government is in the midst of war.”

105 billion shekels in addition to the 2024 budget

The total proposed budget submitted to the Knesset amounts to NIS 619 billion, including an additional NIS 10 billion allocated in case the war continues. This is a sharp increase of NIS 105 billion from the 2024 budget, which was approved in 2023 before the war began and has since been tripled. The targeted fiscal deficit by the end of 2025 is 4.4%.

Due to the delay so far, it is expected that the budget will not be approved in the Knesset before the second half of February. Until the budget is passed in 2025, government spending each month will not be allowed to exceed one-twelfth of total spending for 2024.

In an unusual initiative, most of the new 2025 tax measures imposed by the government were passed through the Knesset separately so that they could take effect on January 1. These measures designed to increase state revenues include increasing National Insurance payments, deducting a day’s worth of leisure payments from salaried employees, freezing and not reviewing income tax brackets and rights in line with inflation, freezing public sector wages, increasing taxes on the wealthy, and a new tax on sequestered profits. Companies.

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on December 17, 2024