Cabinet approves budget cut, coalition funds left untouched

The Israeli cabinet today approved a 1% budget cut for all government ministries except the Defense Ministry for the 2024 budget, including NIS 525 million originally earmarked to raise high school teachers’ salaries. The 1% budget cut is intended to finance the continued evacuation of residents in the north and south for an additional two months, at a total cost of NIS 1 billion.

And just last week, the government transferred hundreds of millions of shekels of coalition funds.

The cuts apply to the government’s social and civil budgets, including the ministries of education, health and social care. The defence budget is excluded as usual, but not the national security (police) budget.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir opposed the NIS 42 million budget cut for his ministry, saying: “Just as no one thought of cutting the budget of the Defense Ministry and the IDF, no one should think of cutting the budget of the National Security Ministry and its many subordinate organizations. The budget was indeed cut for an important purpose, but the meaning of cutting the budget for the police, the prison service, and the fire and rescue service is harming internal security in times of war.”

But sources in the Finance Ministry claim that Ben-Gvir is distorting the facts. They claim that Ben-Gvir demanded and received billions of shekels in budgetary additions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but his ministry was unable to implement the use of the money, as the funds are simply sitting in different sections of the budget. This comes at a time when the Finance Ministry is struggling to finance the massive costs of the war, with a widening fiscal deficit that reached 7% of GDP in May.

This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on July 7, 2024.

© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.