The Finance Committee, chaired by MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), convened on Monday for a debate on the preparations by the Government to grant compensation by property tax due to the state of warfare. The debate focused on the state’s assistance to businesses whose activity was harmed by the days of warfare.
At the start of the debate, the Members of Knesset noted the dedicated, thorough and comprehensive work of the Compensation Fund personnel.
Amir Dahan, head of the Israel Tax Authority’s Compensation Department, presented the extensive damage caused since the start of the direct confrontation with Iran in the past two weeks: “We are coping with the direct damage and [making] preparations for the indirect damage. There are errors, and we haven’t reached everyone on time. Within two weeks, there are nearly 40,000 claims that have been filed. To give a sense of scale, in the entire war until the round [of hostilities] with Iran there were 70,000 claims. Even if the war ends now, I estimate that we will reach 50,000 [claims] due to this round. »
Dahan said further, “Until now, since the start of the war we have paid NIS 2.5 billion. Since the round of direct warfare with Iran, in the past two weeks we have reached about NIS 4.5 billion, and I believe that we’ll reach 5 billion. These are amounts we have never seen in direct damage. The Weizmann Institute and Bazan are huge events. In total, we have 25 buildings for demolition; in comparison, from the start of the war until the round with Iran, there was one building for demolition. »
Dahan said, “There were over NIS 9 billion in the Compensation Fund before the start of the event, and we still have open files from the war. The total value of the claims on the table is NIS 6 billion, and there are also entire businesses in northern Israel that haven’t filed claims yet. We still don’t know the full extent, there is a very large expenditure here. »
In the course of the debate, it was made clear that a bill would soon be brought before the Knesset Plenum that would enable compensation to be given to businesses throughout Israel, similarly to the bill that was already presented and the plan adopted at the start of the war, with adjustments to the current round. The Members of Knesset called to expedite the submission of the bill, and stated that they intended to optimize the plan and improve its accuracy for the benefit of the businesses.
