PM said to be ready to slash taxes, gasoline prices

Netanyahu is putting together a number of steps that will ease the tax burden on the middle class, according to MK Akunis.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Menahem Kahana)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Menahem Kahana)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is working toward lowering taxes and gasoline prices, MK Ofir Akunis (Likud) said on Saturday.
“The government is listening to the public’s requests,” Akunis, a close ally of Netanyahu, told Israel Radio. “The prime minister is putting together a number of steps that will ease the tax burden on the middle class.”
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“At the moment, steps are being considered to lower gasoline and electricity prices, and major tax cuts are not out of the question,” he added.
Netanyahu is reportedly planning to form a committee in the coming days that will attempt to find a way to lower the cost of living through tax cuts and reduced prices. He also is likely to announce on Sunday that the finance and infrastructures ministries will block the planned hike in automobile fuel prices, which had been scheduled for midnight tonight.
Last Tuesday, Netanyahu and senior cabinet members announced a program to tackle the housing crisis, saying it would improve the situation for young couples, students, demobilized soldiers and the homeless.
The central components of the plan are a bill that will circumvent bureaucracy in planning, and reforms in the Israel Lands Authority that are meant to simplify sale of land for housing.