A public opinion survey carried out yesterday by the government advertising bureau indicates that 63% of the Israeli public support raising the rate of taxation on gas and oil resources, as recommended by the Sheshinski committee. 48.3 support the committee's conclusions, while 14.3% say that the conclusions are biased in favor of the energy exploration companies.
Against this, the survey findings show 10.9% of the public believes that the conclusions are damaging to the companies, while 26.5% have no opinion. These means that, among those who expressed an opinion, more than 80% support raising taxation rates in principle, 65% support the actual conclusions of the Sheshinski committee, and 15.6% believe that those conclusions favor the energy exploration companies, while 19.4% believe that the committee's recommendations are damaging to the companies.
The survey also finds that 61% of the public are aware of the committee and its activity, compared with just 37% in December.
The survey was carried out through an Internet poll of 509 respondents, as a representative sample of the Hebrew speaking Jewish population - not including haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) - in Israel. The sampling was from a panel of 100 thousand registered respondents.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 12, 2011
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