The government has approved a “Spring Cleaning” relief plan for businesses and citizens, with the goal of saving one billion shekels in the Israeli economy per year. Additionally, the plan is intended to save more than a yearly cumulative one million days of waiting for approvals.
The plan, which includes 30 action items, including the abolition of the obligation to install an alert system for forgetting children in vehicles, which was set to take be enforced by law this month; vaccinating dogs every two years instead of annually; and the abolition of the requirement to get a license in order to fell trees in a private yard.
“We continue to make it easier for the public, and dissipate another bureaucratic traffic jam,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “We have approved at once about 30 moves to reduce excess regulation in a wide range of areas. This is a significant reform that will affect the precious time and wallets of citizens and business owners in Israel. Since the formation of the government we have moved to alleviate the burden of regulation from a variety of actions, and this will continue in further moves that the regulatory authority and government ministries will lead in the coming months.”
“We are pursuing our cooperation between government ministries in order to facilitate the citizens of Israel. Especially in light of the outbreak of the corona variant and the new Omicron variant, this is exactly the time to reduce the burden on Israeli businesses and the economy,” said Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman.
Earlier in January, Liberman held a press conference where he expressed his belief that despite Omicron, “business is in excellent shape.” Later that week, the Finance Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office signed on a plan to offer relief to small businesses suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Liberman added: “The easing of regulations that we are passing today touches on a variety of areas and will make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to conduct themselves in front of the state, and will save the economy about a billion shekels.”