The Finance Ministry prefers to concentrate on privatization of the ports.
The Ministry of Finance has postponed by six months the reform in wharf fees at the ports, according to a fourth, and latest, draft on the reform that the ministry sent to the Ministry of Transport last week. The draft states that the Ministry of Finance will publish the directives in January 2010, the original date for the reform, and that the reform will come into effect in July.
The cabinet decision on the ports' privatization set the end of May 2010 as the deadline for completing the process. The new draft is the first deviation from this timetable.
A source involved in the negotiations informed ''Globes'', "The Ministry of Finance apparently realized that there was no chance of passing the ports fees reform before January. It therefore preferred to clear the table in order to concentrate on the second, and more burning, issue in the negotiations with the ports' workers - privatization of the ports."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 3, 2009
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