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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All the very best,
Karen Poll (Administrator)
Financial Resource Network, Ltd.
( info@isrenet.com )
Telephone: 02-5807013
Fax: 02-6245850
1 comment:
Thank you for posting this. I had no idea.
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