Governor of the Bank of Israel Karnit Flug wants higher civilian expenditure to combat growing poverty.
Governor of the Bank of Israel Dr. Karnit Flug has warned of tax hikes in 2017. Interviewed on Channel 2's "Meet the Press" she said, "I think that ultimately we need to collect more taxes in order to increase civilian expenditure in the longer term."
She felt that taking into account high growth figures and low unemployment and growing poverty that we might see tax hikes in the near future.
Flug took the opportunity to deny charges by former Minister of Environmental Protection Avi Gabbay that she had struck a political with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to support the natural gas outline agreement. Gabbay said that in exchange for supporting the agreement, Netanyahu would persuade Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon to soften the banking system reforms he was promoting. Flug said, "There never was such an agreement. It's absolutely groundless and I don't understand why such things are made up."
Flug was ambiguous about the tax on third homes. "On the margins it might help but the more fundamental solution is to build more apartments."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 1, 2017
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Karnit Flug