Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz
Photo: Dudi Vaaknin
Steinitz: Stabilizing businesses, curbing unemployment first priority
Finance minister presents budget bill to Knesset's Finance Committee; latter promises formidable debate in arrangements law
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz presented the 2009-2010 state budget proposal to the Knesset's Finance Committee' Monday, stressing the market is facing an emergency situation.
Steinitz told the committee his first priority is to stabilize businesses in order to avoid mass layoffs, "Which could prove to be not only financially disastrous, but will also carry a devastating social toll."
Money Men
Zvi Lavi believes that even as Knesset Finance Committee readies to tackle new budget bill, it is too early say Yuval Steinitz has failed, especially given that he has produced an unprecedented budget proposal
Stabilizing the business community is imperative to protecting export levels and curbing market shrinkage.
"All of our (budgetary) goals are important, but preventing unemployment is pivotal," he said.
Knesset Member Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), who heads the committee, promised Steinitz "a difficult debate… you can't cut taxes for the upper echelons while driving the price of produce up and raising VAT, thus increasing the impact on the lower echelons."
The committee, added Gafni, will not vote in favor of the arrangements bill – which is a traditional addendum to the budget bill – if it includes reforms not directly linked to the state budget.
Steinitz also told the committee that he plans to allot NIS 25 billion (nearly $6 billion) to be used as a state guarantee for business credit lines, adding he hoped that finding a solution to the credit crunch would help Israel become one of the first nations to come out of the crisis.
Gafni assured the finance minister that the committee will support the state guarantee proposal, since it does not exceed the limit stated in the Budget Act – in this case 10%, or NIS 32 billion (approx. $7.67 billion).
