The government is to blame for high prices and monopolies, Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg told the Knesset Finance Committee today, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday postponed a vote on the Trajtenberg committee recommendations to next week, after failing to win a majority in the cabinet.
Trajtenberg defended his report, and said that it did not recycle previous committees' recommendations. "The economy has grown in recent years, but people are not seeing the salaries increase. At the same time, apartment prices are rising along with prices for basic goods. A large part of the rise in prices is because of Israeli governments in the past decade. What happened to government-controlled prices? They rose. Furthermore, monopolistic power has grown in local markets where Israelis shop. This power means higher prices."
Trajtenberg also pointed to serious failures in the public sector, which results in public money not reaching the people.
Knesset Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said, "We may have to vote today." He said that he opposed the Trajtenberg committee, but praised its report, which was prepared in just 50 days. "Parts of this report need not have been written, and important parts were not written. I will not wait for the government or for anyone. We might already approve the main tax reforms. The committee and I are practical people, not philosophers. We make decisions."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 4, 2011
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