The Ministry of Defense is preparing a plan to raise the pay of IDF conscripts multifold to as much as NIS 2,200 a month. Most of financing for the plan will come from internal defense sources, but the Ministry of Finance says that the plan cannot be implemented.
The Ministry of Defense proposes a NIS 1.6 billion financial structure. Half the funding will be the current conscripts' pay, NIS 350 million will come from the reduction in deposits by discharged soldiers, and NIS 500 million will come from indemnification from the Ministry of Finance on the basis of the current budget. This will be partly possible by using unused budgets for benefits for discharged soldiers.
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak ordered ministry director general Uri Shani to carry out the staff work on the plan in coordination with the IDF Personnel Directorate. The plan is due to be submitted soon as a government sponsored bill. It calls for the pay of a combat serviceman to be NIS 1,035 per month in the first year of service, NIS 1,500 in the second year, and NIS 2,200 in the third year. A combat support soldier will receive NIS 753 per month in the first year of service, NIS 1,100 in the second year, and NIS 1,600 in the third year. A rear echelon soldier will receive NIS 520 per month in the first year of service, NIS 700 in the second year, and NIS 1,000 in the third year.
Currently, a compat soldier earns NIS 780 a month, and a rear echelon soldier earns NIS 350.
The Ministry of Defense says that the IDF supports a gradual substantial increase in conscripts' pay, based on their length of service, and distinguishing between types of service (combat, combat support, and rear echelon). ,p>Barak says, "The pay hike will make possible, in our complex reality, fair compensation for those who are called to serve and take upon themselves greater risk and burdens during their military service and reserve duty, and we owe them much." He added, "Raising conscripts' pay is part of a deep social and national change which is not limited to the Ministry of Defense. It is changed needed by the State of Israel."
A Ministry of Finance source sharply criticized the Ministry of Defense plan He said, "We and the other ministries do not have NIS 500 million in reserves to finance this plan. To the best of our understanding, and on the basis of statements by the Ministry of Defense itself, it does not have the money either. After all, the Ministry of Defense has claimed that it has run out of money to financing training and other basic operations."
The source added that the Ministry of Defense did not coordinate the plan with the Ministry of Finance. They add that the plan will draw fire, in part because it does not includes shortening mandatory military service alongside the pay hike. "We're already beginning a very difficult and pressured budget, following the tough budgets we've already had," he said. "This plan has no chance."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 29, 2012
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