Yesh Atid Party chairman and former Minister of Finance MK Yair Lapid opposes the proposal by Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon to tax owners of three or more housing units. In an interview today on Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), Lapid said, "I'm against the tax on a third housing unit, because it's illogical. If someone has three small housing units in Beer Sheva or Dimona for which he has worked hard in order to give them to his children, why should he pay tax, when someone who has a NIS 30 million penthouse in Tel Aviv doesn't?"
Lapid added, "I don't see what this accomplishes, other than the Ministry of Finance trying to sell its minister all sorts of ideas aimed at collecting more taxes."
Asked about the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to shelve Lapid's 0% VAT plan, Lapid commented, "For me 0% VAT wasn't a housing plan. I wanted to give young couples a NIS 250,000 discount on their first housing unit. Heaven knows how it became a point of controversy and worse."
Responding to Lapid's opposition to the third housing unit bill, Kahlon said, "The purpose of the bill is for taxing a third apartment is to free up apartments for young couples, not to collect taxes, as Lapid claims. I will continue to battle against real estate investors in order to free up housing units for young couples."
A Channel 2 poll published this week gave Lapid's Yesh Atid Party 24 Knesset seats, which would make it Israel's largest party. "People in Israel are tired of politicians concerned about themselves all the time and looking to see where they are in the table," Lapid said in the interview. Referring to attacks against him by left wingers, he said, "I don't read 'Haaretz," so I don't know what they write there. I prefer for them to scream, while we go on doing hard work."
Q: Why did you say nothing about the crisis on the recent Sabbath?
Lapid: "I said things of substance, not what you wanted to hear. I don't mind struggling against the haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews), but in this case, it wasn't a case of secular and haredim; it was a case of the prime minister and another minister taking 200,000 people and making them a tool in the political context between them. I'm not willing to appeal to hatred. When I'm prime minister, there will be core studies for everyone and there will be essential work on the Sabbath, just as there has been for 68 years."
Lapid nevertheless did not agree to give a clear answer whether he was in favor of the AM:PM supermarket chain being open on the Sabbath.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 8, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016