Treasury plans tax on banks and Ashdod Port privatization

The draft economic arrangements law, which will be attached to the 2025 budget, outlines the reforms that the Finance Ministry intends to implement next year. The draft law includes important measures in the areas of finance, real estate, state-owned companies, and others. The draft does not include any new taxes that will be included in the 2025 budget, such as freezing income tax brackets and National Insurance pensions and allowances, which will be promoted separately.

Special tax on banks

The Economic Arrangements Bill proposes forming a committee to study imposing a special tax on banks in 2026 due to their high profits, after imposing a special tax on them in 2024 and 2025 with a total value of 2.5 billion shekels.

Privatization of Ashdod Port

In the draft economic arrangements bill, the Finance Ministry revealed its plans to lead the privatization of the Ashdod Port. An inter-ministerial committee will be formed to promote the sale of shares in the Ashdod Port. The committee will submit its privatization proposal to Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem within 60 days, and the proposal will be submitted to the Ministerial Committee for Privatization within 90 days.

The Economic Arrangements Bill also proposes not to allow the Minister to interfere in the distribution of profits of state companies, and proposes to amend the State Companies Law with the aim of simplifying the distribution of profits to the state coffers.

Another proposal is to change the school week from six to five days in the public school system, so that the school week coincides with the work week. Such a measure would also help the education system deal with the teacher shortage.

The draft economic arrangements bill also proposes closing five of the 31 government ministries, with all five deemed redundant. The bill also proposes tighter controls by the Finance Ministry on the defense budget, particularly on salaries, pensions, and massive blanket agreements with municipalities to speed up housing construction.

This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on September 22, 2024.

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