The Knesset Finance Committee, in a bid to block a covert import from Iran, on Tuesday approved a government plan to tax roasted pistachios.
Most of the roasted pistachios in Israel are from Iran and are imported through Turkey, the finance committee said in a statement, citing remarks from an Israel Tax Authority official in Tuesday's meeting.
The tax on roasted pistachios will be 23 percent, or not less than NIS 3.5 a kilogram, according to an Israel Tax Authority document.
The move was designed to make it "harder to import from Iran to Israel," Kobi Bozo told the committee, according to the statement.
Israel and Iran have had no diplomatic ties since the Iranian Revolution brought Shiite Muslim clerics to power in 1979. It is illegal to import from Iran.
In 2008, Israel imported 3.5 million kilograms of fresh and roasted pistachios, the Tax Authority said in a statement. Most fresh pistachios were imported from the US and are not taxed under a free trade agreement.
It was not immediately clear how much of the total imports are from Iran.
Israel doesn't release figures on US pistachio imports due to confidentiality since there are very few importers, Ariella Solomon, a spokeswoman for the Tax Authority said by telephone.
