Finance Ministry sources disclosed today that Israeli state income for the past seven months has been 115,000,000 pounds ($38,300,000) less than had been forecast in the general budget.
It was indicated that this sharp drop was due to Israel’s current retrenchment program and general economic squeeze. The figures were disclosed after rumors circulated that the state income had been hit even harder by the Government’s austerity program.
The disclosure was only one of several developments indicating a deepening of the economic pinch. Israel’s huge auto assembly plant, Ilin Industries in Haifa, closed its facilities last night after its workers struck in protest against the dismissal of 110 other workers. Since January 1, more than half of the plant’s normal complement of 1,200 employees have been laid off with less than 500 remaining.
The continuous rise in unemployment prompted Yaakov Hazan, a leader of the leftist Mapam Party, to warn last night at a meeting in Ramat Gan that if the Government did not take urgent steps to deal with the problem, Mapam might quit Premier Levi Eshkol’s coalition Government. Other Mapam leaders told the meeting that joblessness stemming from the austerity program would not increase productivity but would destroy worker morale.
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