Israel’s Knesset (parliament) was told by Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir today that he contemplates a 1968-69 budget, for the fiscal year beginning April 1, of 5,987 billion Israeli pounds (about $1.7 billion). The budget would be about $35 million below the budget for 1966-67.
Some 34 percent of the budget, Mr. Sapir said, would be allocated to development projects, and the remainder would be used for ordinary, governmental expenditures. The figures for defense were kept secret, as usual. But the Finance Minister said that the country’s defense needs place a heavy burden on the country, and the Israeli citizen pays almost two-thirds of all his taxes for defense.
Several tax reductions are planned for the next fiscal year, Mr. Sapir said, mainly for housing and for large families. The reductions, he declared, are designed partly to ease the tax burdens on new immigrants. It was predicted at the Knesset that the new budget would be approved before the new fiscal year opens.
In presenting the budget, Mr. Sapir told the House that price stability and slow expansion of Israel’s economy would continue in the coming year. He also said that the Jewish Agency has resumed responsibility for many services in the fields of immigrant absorption, immigration and social welfare benefits for immigrants and residents of settlements, Partly, he said, this move has been made possible by the funds contributed to the Israel Emergency Fund campaigns in 1967, thus freeing the Government of certain responsibilities and allowing it to reduce its own expenditures in the relevant fields.
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