The Israeli government on Sunday approved a decision by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to double the tax exemption ceiling on personal imports to $150. The Knesset is expected to vote on the order on Monday, and the Finance Ministry said it anticipates the measure will pass.<\/p>\n
Following the government\u2019s approval, Smotrich said the move demonstrates that consumer prices can be reduced. \u201cThe government took another step today that proves it can be cheap here. The approval of the order I signed, which has already come into effect, gives it backing and strengthens the move,\u201d he said. \u201cEven now, we can see the impact: more purchases, more competition, and lower prices. The goal is clear: to turn every citizen into an importer and expand competition in the market.\u201d He thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his support, adding, \u201cIt can be cheap here, and we are proving it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oslo Accords & West Bank: Israeli Finance Min. Smotrich calls for cancelling Osolo Accords<\/p>\n
The upcoming Knesset vote is expected to test coalition unity, as some lawmakers within the coalition have voiced opposition to the order. A decisive discussion is scheduled regarding efforts to cancel the measure. The Finance Minister\u2019s office said the government\u2019s approval makes its position clear ahead of the vote and signals an expectation of coalition discipline.<\/p>\n
Finance Committee Chairman\u00a0MK Hanoch Milwidsky criticized the move on social media platform X, calling on coalition members not to support it. \u201cI call on my colleagues in the coalition not to support tomorrow in the plenum the destruction of small businesses in favor of platforms from China,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Smotrich backtracks: Finance Min. denies agreeing to support Haredi draft law<\/p>\n
Last week, Milwidsky also accused Smotrich of avoiding a vote due to a lack of majority support. \u201cSmotrich is afraid of a vote in the plenum because he knows he doesn’t have a majority. This is a bad decision that the vast majority of Knesset members oppose. I very much hope that the Likud ministers will finally stand up for Likud’s values and clarify to the Minister of Finance that both our opinion and our voters must be taken into account,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli government on Sunday approved a decision by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to double the tax exemption…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-304502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}