{"id":471803,"date":"2026-06-02T04:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/471803\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T04:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:58:10","slug":"knesset-revokes-smotrichs-order-expanding-personal-import-tax-exemption-to-130","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/471803\/","title":{"rendered":"Knesset revokes Smotrich’s order expanding personal import tax exemption to $130"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knesset lawmakers on Tuesday voted 59-23 to revoke Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich\u2019s order raising the value-added tax exemption threshold on personal imports from $75 to $130, effectively restoring the previous $75 limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those who voted this evening against raising the VAT exemption on products ordered from overseas hurting the pockets of Israeli citizens,\u201d Smotrich wrote on X in response.<\/p>\n

The vote marked the latest setback for Smotrich\u2019s efforts to lower the tax on personal imports and a rare instance of the Knesset overturning a ministerial order, while reflecting divisions in the coalition ahead of elections later this year. <\/p>\n

In February, Smotrich signed an order in defiance of the Knesset to increase the exemption to $130, just hours after the body voted<\/a> 59-25 to revoke his earlier order raising the threshold to $150.<\/p>\n

The measure drew opposition from lawmakers across the political spectrum as well as small-business owners, who argued that it would undermine local retailers by encouraging purchases from overseas online platforms.<\/p>\n

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Knesset Finance Committee chair Hanoch Milwidsky, Economy Minister Nir Barkat and MK Eli Dalal, all members of the ruling Likud party, were among the initiative\u2019s most vocal critics, accusing it of subsidizing foreign companies at the expense of local industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of this absurd order is more than NIS 1 billion ($354 million) to the Israeli economy,\u201d said Milwidsky, adding that the order \u201cencourages nothing but excessive and unnecessary consumption\u201d and was designed to distract from \u201cthe finance minister\u2019s failure to address anything related to the cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knesset lawmakers on Tuesday voted 59-23 to revoke Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich\u2019s order raising the value-added tax exemption…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1982,42,43,40,38,41,39,219260],"class_list":["post-471803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bezalel-smotrich","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-vat-value-added-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471803","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=471803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}