The price of a liter of gasoline was to fall NIS 1.50 at midnight, part of an ongoing government effort to reduce the strain of the rising cost of living.
In the cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Yair Lapid noted that his government is working to undermine any monopolistic presence in the market.
“Anyone who thinks they have a monopoly on certain products is wrong,” said Lapid, who added that for 15 years, the government has done “nothing regarding the cost of living, but this government is different: the fuel price drops today at midnight, by a shekel and a half per liter – and we started a reform in the field of imports and are determined to continue it with all our might.”
“Anyone who thinks they have a monopoly on certain products is wrong.”
Prime Minister Yair Lapid
Further elaborating on the government’s stance against retail monopolies, Lapid applauded major marketing chains such as Shufersal and Victory, which recently informed importers that they refuse to raise the prices of pharmaceutical products, coffee and a host of other products. “I congratulate them. This is how it should be,” he said.
In June, then-prime minister Naftali Bennett and Finance Minister Liberman abolished several dozen national import standards that blocked imports from developed countries, as well as several that deviated from international standards.
Parallel imports
This move is expected to promote parallel imports into Israel, widening the scope of products and brands available for purchase by consumers.
“The government will not stand by either. If importers raise prices in an unrestrained manner, they will find that we have opened the market to parallel imports, we have removed barriers in the Economy and Health ministries, and above all, we have brought competition to the market,” said Lapid.
“The cost of living is a scourge,” he concluded. “Families aren’t making ends meet. Check and compare prices: almost every product on the market has high-quality products at a much lower price. If we join hands – the government and the citizens – we will lower the cost of living together.”