INFLATION IN ISRAEL – Electricity Prices

Former Economy Min.: Freeze price of electricity

'Government must enact emergency plan to stop the rise in prices, reduce cost of living,' Likud's MK Eli Cohen urges.

Former Economy Minister MK Eli Cohen (LIkud) has presented a plan for reducing inflation and the cost of living in Israel.

"We need to freeze the price of electricity, water, and property tax, and bring about a gradual reduction of VAT (value added tax)," Cohen told Maariv.

"The fight against inflation and to keep prices stable is critical to every economy, but at the same time, fighting it only through interest takes time and harms businesses, households in general, and mortgage holders, and it increases the social gaps.”

Cohen added, "The State increasing the cost of basic products fuels the rise in prices, since electricity, water, and property tax are needed by almost every business. These are essential services which are used in every home, which reduce the available income and harm the private consumption in the market."

"The Israeli government must enact an emergency plan to stop the rise in prices and reduce the cost of living, since the use of interest alone harms the economy, and especially the small businesses, reduces private consumption, expands the social gaps, and most of all harms those who have mortgages, who pay another several hundred shekel each month.”

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/359288

ABOUT ISRAELI ELECTRICITY

The following post on Facebook was the first we heard about an important

reform to one of our basic utilities.  It has not recently been

mentioned by any other source that we could find.

Switching electricity suppliers

    A reform from a few years ago that's finally coming to fruition

    could save you a significant amount on your electricity bills. It

    seems to have slipped under the radar and I haven't seen anyone

    write about it here, so I thought I'd spread the word.

    The electricity sector is divided into three domains: production,

    transmission and end-consumer supply. Until a couple of years ago,

    one company, חברת החשמל (IEC) had a monopoly on all three parts. The

    reform allowed new entrants to compete with them on the first and

    third domains. This means that you can pay your bills to another

    company, instead of the IEC, and they can offer you any tariff

    they'd like. They have to ensure they've bought enough electricity

    from producers to cover your usage at the time you use it, and the

    grid manager checks that they did so correctly (a similar system has

    been running in the UK for decades).

    In order for them to know your exact usage at all times, you need to

    have a smart meter installed. So only people with smart meters can

    switch suppliers. A smart meter is the one with the digital display

    and flashing light, rather than the revolving disc and mechanical

    counter in analog meters. You can ask the IEC to install a smart

    meter at the fixed price of 223 shekels.

    Once you have a smart meter, you can switch to any of the new

    suppliers. For example, Pazgas have recently launched their

    electricity business, offering (among others) an attractive tariff

    of 20% cheaper electricity for 08:00-16:00 Sun - Thu

    (https://campaigns.pazgas.co.il/ele/

If you want to know more, leave your email below and I will forward the email I received discussing this.

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Financial Resource Network, Ltd.
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