Economist Shlomo Maoz has again made controversial remarks, attacking the government's economic conduct and state budget at a Ruppin Academic Center conference. "If I live in Israel and I'm Bedouin or Arab, the interest rate I pay is higher. The closer I get to the White Men and Tel Aviv, the interest rate I pay falls. What can you do; that's how it is," he said at the "Round Table on the budget and gaps" conference.
"Why should an Arab pay a higher interest rate? There is no competition in banking. The Bank of Israel is only worried about itself and its executives only worry about their jobs and what position they'll get in Tel Aviv," added Maoz.
Maoz called the present state budget "the avarice of Tel Aviv". "The government is very cruel with this budget. They're cutting the budget for infrastructures. There was an idea to build a railway line to Afula and Beit She'an. It's true that they are not our people in Beit She'an. Who knows these people at all? The main thing is for Tel Aviv to rule, for avarice to rule, all the ideas emerge from Tel Aviv, even if they are written in Jerusalem.
"The Israeli government is imposing an income tax of 1.5% on the whole society - this means adding a lot of money to mortgage payments, for example. Instead of levying the purchase tax and arnona (local property tax) on big apartments - after all, there's a difference between a student who rents an apartment and a rich man. There are places to get the money from. I previously proposed the tax on tourists - we pay taxes when we travel to Europe, so why shouldn’t tourists pay taxes here? Is it moral to raise the income tax on people who earn just over NIS 5,000 a month, but not to touch Eilat's tax exemption? Why not levy taxes on fruits and vegetables? There's a whole black market from which no money is collected."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 22, 2013
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