If the government eliminates redundancies within ministries, it can cut billions of shekels from the budget, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said Tuesday.
“As I came into this position, I realized that there are so many departments that serve similar functions within different ministries or even the same ministry,” he said in Jerusalem at the Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society. “We don’t need to split up different parts within a ministry to serve different political parties. If we can eliminate these redundancies, we’ll save billions of shekels.”
In one of his first public appearances since he took office, Liberman reiterated many of his positions.
The Treasury is preparing a responsible two-year budget for 2021-2022 to be approved by November, which would be Israel’s first budget since mid-2018, he said.
There will be no new taxes, and there will be significant investments in large infrastructure projects, Liberman said.
“For several years, there hasn’t been a government, and no one has been in charge,” he said. “Now, all of the different interest groups are coming to us with their demands, and all their demands are justified. We are working to prioritize [their] needs responsibly.”
Liberman advised the public not to give too much credence to rumors that are circulating in the media.
Regarding reports that he is considering canceling VAT on purchases made online, he said: “We will discuss this topic and others at our meetings and release a coherent statement when a decision is made. Any report [from sources] that doesn’t come from an official statement is their own responsibility.”
Israel will seek to participate in global initiatives, such as the OECD’s digital economy taxation outline, Liberman said, which he signed onto last week, and a carbon-tax initiative.
Israel should accept more licenses and standards from abroad, Liberman said.
“I don’t understand why some products that have been accepted by the standards institutes in other OECD countries should need to be reauthorized here,” he said.
Regarding benefits for people placed on unpaid leave (halat) during the coronavirus crisis, Liberman said the government could not continue to give out free money to people now that the economy has recovered.
Unemployment payments have been canceled for people under age 45, but they will continue to be provided for those who still need help, including workers in the tourism sector, pregnant women and people above age 67 who are unable to find work.
“I’m not here to be popular,” Liberman said. “There are 130,000 open positions that can’t find workers to fill them. We need people to go to work. There are high-paying positions such as truck drivers and welders that don’t have enough job candidates. Professional training is a top priority, and people who attend courses can receive stipends while they learn.”
Regarding haredi (ultra-Orthodox) society, toward which Liberman has long been seen as being antagonistic, the most important thing is to give youth a proper education, he said.
“We can’t let haredi grades get so far behind those of the general population,” he added. “An 18-year-old who never learned math or English is unable to aim high. People can choose to go to yeshiva, but the country has an obligation to give them an education.”
Ultimately, the current government has a very thin majority, and the only way it can last is if each minister focuses on their own area of responsibility, Liberman said.
“If we all try to tell each other what to do in other fields, the coalition will fail,” he said.