Occupied Quds - Saba:
A senior source in the Israeli Ministry of Finance told the Yedioth Ahronoth website on Tuesday that the new huge budgets allocated for 2025 to rebuild the northern and southern settlements are "frozen", so that "they cannot be used until the final approval of the government budget."
The failure to approve the government budget for 2025 "is already causing great damage to the economy, while the concern in the Finance Ministry now is that Israel will be run for a full quarter with an interim budget, so that the budget for each of the months of January, February, and March is equal to 1/12 of the original government budget for 2024," the website said.
However, "the accountant general in the Finance Ministry decided to allocate a smaller budget, for fear that there would be a need to finance additional months with an interim budget, and to create a reserve aimed at preventing the disruption of budgets for vital services for the Zionists."
"The Finance Ministry explained that the gap between the original budget for 2024 and the budget for 2025 amounts to a huge amount of 100 billion shekels, which means there is a significant shortage in the budgets that can be used in the first quarter of the year, and the result will be harm to the services that the Zionists receive from various government ministries, and to many of the new programs included in the 2025 budget," the website added.
Sources in the political establishment estimate that "the final approval of the government budget in the third reading will not be possible before the end of March, due to pressure from the Haredi parties regarding the enactment of the draft law in its proposed form, which they do not agree to."
In the same context, a prominent government economic source expressed to the Yedioth Ahronoth website "real concern about the possibility that the government budget will not be approved by the deadline set in the law, March 31."
"If that happens, it will be a disaster," the source said. "The government's failure to manage the full budget required during the war, with a huge deficit and special security tasks that will not be possible to implement, will cause enormous damage to the economy and security."
In addition to its impact on the Israeli economy, services, and media, and the negative expectations for Israel's credit rating by the three agencies "Moody's", "Fitch", and "S&P", the damage caused by the use of the interim budget "will also result in very serious damage to security, whether in the field of armament, or in the field of plans to strengthen military forces and recruit soldiers, or the need to expand protection on the borders, including the eastern border, and facing the West Bank", according to the source.
According to the website, the damage caused by the use of the interim budget "has become tangible in government ministries", but according to sources in the economic ministries (Finance, Economy, Labor, Welfare, Agriculture, Health, and Transportation), the damage "will worsen over the next two months, as it will not be possible to implement any new activity that was planned for the current year".
According to the Israeli budget law, elections will be announced in this case within 100 days, and the government will be run with an interim budget for a period of no less than seven months.
It is worth noting that the budget and settlements law discussions are currently being conducted by five committees in the Knesset at a slow pace, although there are only about two months left for the final approval of the government budget, and important and pivotal chapters in the settlements law have not yet been approved. The final budget data has not yet been presented to the Finance Committee, and therefore has not yet been approved.