More than 20,000,000 pounds ($6,600,000) has been saved by Government personnel reductions and other economies in the first phase of the Government’s retrenchment program, a major phase of Israel’s current austerity effort, Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir told a press conference here today.
He said 15,000,000 pounds ($5,000,000) had been saved by canceling 1,400 unfilled jobs, and that more than 2,000,000 pounds ($650,000) had been saved by cutting overtime and traveling allowances. He expressed the hope that concurrently with such efforts, productivity would increase in the next coming years.
The Finance Ministry opened a drive today to enforce income tax collections. Several dozen teams of revenue inspectors began to check income tax returns. Ministry officials believe that considerable amounts in income tax payments are still being evaded by taxpayers. The special drive was stimulated in part by the adoption last month of the austerity program which froze incomes and prices.
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