Last month, Shaul Kotlarsky bought a Subaru Justy, all the while realizing he might not have enough money to maintain it. This month, he is wondering how to keep up the payments while still paying the rent and feeding his family.
Kotlarsky, like many new immigrants from non-Western countries, felt compelled to buy a car by March 31 — the day the government was to end tax breaks on car purchases by olim from distressed countries.
At the beginning of the year, the government announced that it would give each immigrant a currency basket equivalent to some $2,500 with which to set up a household, and do away with tax benefits for the purchase of appliances and automobiles. (Rights for immigrants from Western nations were unaffected.)
Just after signing on the dotted line, Kotlarsky learned that the government had changed its mind again, this time to extend the deadline on car purchases until Dec. 31.
For Kotlarsky and many of the 20,000 other new immigrants who rushed to buy cars in the first three months of 1992, the outcome could be financial ruin.
Even with their one-time car rights, which spare immigrants the 100 percent purchase tax all Israelis must pay when buying an automobile, few olim have enough cash to purchase a car outright. While most go to banks to secure loans, there have also been widespread reports of olim turning to loansharks for money.
The Customs and Tax Authority has launched an investigation into the matter.
‘A LOT OF UNFORTUNATE SUFFERING’
Debra Lipson, spokeswoman for the Zionist Forum, an advocacy group for olim from the former Soviet republics, said that the March 31 deadline had caused “a lot of unfortunate suffering. Immigrants have gone into catastrophic debt in order to buy a car which, had there been no deadline, they would not have purchased at this time.
“They believed that if they did not buy a car now, they would never again have the opportunity to do so. Now they are left with a car they cannot afford to keep, and in many instances can’t afford to repay,” she said.
Just why the government decided to extend the deadline until the end of the year is up for debate, but most agree that the coming elections are the key factor. As one politician put it recently, “The Likud doesn’t need a couple of hundred thousand angry olim, come Election Day.”
Ellie Wurtman, a spokesman for the new immigrant political party Da, said, “While we consider the postponement an important step forward, we question the political motivations.”
Lipson called it “cynical electioneering.”
For new car owner Kotlarsky, the debate is now irrelevant. “True, I would have waited a year to buy the car,” he admitted, “and I’m very worried about the car payments. We’ll have to keep our other expenses down.”
A moment later, the worry lines disappeared. “As bad as things are financially,” he said, “we’ve taken some day trips to see the country. It’s fun to have a car.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
