tax slashed

Well, it is almost official. As promised, noe of the first things to be done was to cancel the tax former FInance Minister Avigdor Lieberman had slapped on the disposable plates and cutlery and the tax on the sugary drinks. 

A short while ago Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch submitted the order to his office to do what is necessary to cancel those taxes. I don't know the process, but it seems like it will take a few days to actually go into effect.

The question that remains to be clarified is what the prices in the shops will go down to, as the shops piggybacked on the tax to raise the prices significantly higher than the tax itself caused according to several reports throughout the year.

Besides for that, on a similar topic, Smotritch himself said today that Lieberman did a good job and was a good Finance Minister, differences in ideology notwithstanding. and that inflation will be a problem for the coming year, though he is instructing his office to prepare a plan, blah blah blah. Smotritch explained that we are in a difficult time with global inflation and we will do what we can to be responsible, etc. Basically admitting that the entire campaign regarding the recent inflation, which was at a much lower rate than almost all other countries, was a sham and it is going to continue because that is the world we live in today and they have no magic solutions. It will probably even get worse as the government starts to pay up on some of its promises like food cards and other payments to the various coalition partners for the programs they were promised such as expanding free education to younger ages, etc.

If this tax isnt going to be the way to cut down on plastics and sugary drinks, hopefully they will find a better way to do it that will be more acceptable to the Haredi parties. Litzman as Health Minister taxed the heck out of cigarettes and that didnt cause any crisis, so there must be some way to do it to improve the future health prospects of the people.

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