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The Israeli government has announced that it will raise the Value Added Tax rate from 17 percent to 18 percent.
Luckily, consumers will get a one day reprieve, as it has originally been scheduled to rise on Friday, but it has since been postponed to Sunday, according to a statement released by the government.
The raise was postponed following a request from the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Knesset, Nissan Slomianski of the Habayit Hayehudi party.
Slomianski asked Finance Minister Yair Lapid to postpone the increase in Value Added Tax by a few days, because it would have constituted a Shabbat desecration had it remained at its original date of midnight on Friday.
Traditional Jews are forbidden to participate in 39 types of work on Shabbat, including making purchases and sales. Had the Value Added Tax increase remained in effect, stores that are open on Shabbat would have been forced to hire additional employees Friday afternoon and all night to quickly update their prices, causing increased desecration of Shabbat. This is because prices must be updated instantly and relabeled by law as soon as the current Value Added Tax rate.
“It is very nice to see that the all Knesset members have agreed to postpone the tax increase due to Shabbat. Israel is a Jewish state and its laws should reflect Jewish values,” Olga Simovotski, 40, of Haifa, Israel told YourJewishNews.com after learning about the delay in the Value Added Tax rate increase.