At midnight between Sunday night and Monday (January 1 2024) the maximum retail price of a liter of government price-controlled unleaded 95 octane gasoline at self-service pumps rose NIS 0.28 to NIS 7.22 (including VAT).
Gasoline prices rose after Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich did not extend the order on cutting excise on fuel.
The 2024 budget has not yet been approved and so the Ministry of Finance has no budget source, as required by law, for covering the loss of state revenues caused by the reduction in excise.
The Ministry of Finance budget division is not interested in funding discounts on gasoline as part of the 2024 budget, which requires many cuts to meet the costs of the war. The monthly cost to the state coffers from the gasoline price subsidy has so far been NIS 100-200 million, depending on fluctuations in oils prices on the world market and the shekel-dollar exchange rate.
In the 2023 state budget, the Ministry of Finance allocated NIS 1.1 billion for fuel excise reductions. The tax reductions have so far been maintained continuously since April 2022, when they were first set by former Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 1, 2024.
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