Minister of Finance Silvan Shalom said the version of the Credit Data Services Law presented to a Knesset committee as the government position on the transfer of positive credit information was not the government’s position and was actually opposed by the government.
Following Shalom’s remarks, coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Boim (Likud) said he may grant each Knesset faction freedom to vote as it wishes on the second and third readings of the bill.
Minister of Justice Meir Sheetrit gave the committee a version that was signed by Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai and conflicts with the committee’s position, which was approved in a revote yesterday. The committee decided to present the version given it by Sheetrit tomorrow to the Knesset plenum as a reservation in the vote on the law’s second reading, in opposition to the committee’s position.
Shalom told “Globes” yesterday that he was on the ministerial committee authorized by the government to formulate a compromise on the dispute concerning positive information together with Sheetrit and Yishai. At the same time, he said that formulation was a compromise, not a formulation adopted by a majority against his position, and should therefore not be regarded as the government’s position.
Collecting information about whether the customer met his financial obligations to the banks and credit card companies would be unrestricted, according to the compromise version adopted by the committee over Shalom's opposition, while transferring the information to those granting the credit could only be done with the customer’s consent. Another possibility is having the customer state in advance whether he opposes the collection and transfer of any information about him. This version was presented in the committee yesterday as the government’s position, a status disputed by Shalom.
Shalom told “Globes” he had asked Boim to notify the committee that approved the law for its second and third readings that he was opposed to the version presented as having government support. Boim was present at the committee meeting, but said nothing about the matter.
Boim said in response that he had no recollection of such a request, but would talk with Shalom to clear the matter up. According to Boim, since Sheetrit is on vacation overseas, it is doubtful whether the dispute can be resolved and a new formulation acceptable to all three ministers found for presentation as the government’s position. Boim added that he would find it hard to enforce coalition discipline under the current circumstances, and would therefore grant each faction freedom to vote as it wishes.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on July 24, 2001