Despite the agreement of the heads of the coalition to cancel the beverage tax, the Ministry of Health tried to formulate a solution: earmarking the tax revenue for promoting awareness in the ultra-orthodox sector. Deri Shekel, Goldknopf Psal
Unusually, the government order to cancel the beverage tax received over a hundred responses from a wide variety of people and organizations, including dieticians who work in the ultra-orthodox sector, people who themselves suffer from overweight and students of the medical professions. “I am ultra-orthodox and I am completely opposed to the abolition of the tax. The tax has significantly reduced the consumption of sugary drinks, it is about harming the public for reasons that are not clear while providing tastes at the level of kindergarten and a shameful surrender to the beverage companies.” This is one example of a response received to a public comment request.
These voices also reached the ears of the ultra-orthodox politicians who led the abolition of the tax. Even in the environment of Aryeh Deri, who during the campaign spoke very strongly against the tax, they admitted that the question of canceling the tax is a “complex dilemma”. In recent weeks, the Shas party, which holds the health portfolio, tried to see whether the ultra-Orthodox public would accept with understanding and perhaps even sympathy the remaining tax – one shekel per liter of drink – on sugar-sweetened beverages. This, when there was agreement that the tax on diet drinks – 70 For every liter of drink – will be canceled and will not be charged again.
The way that the ultra-Orthodox politicians have chosen to get out of this conflict is by diverting additional budgets to promote a healthy lifestyle or fight diabetes. Increasing the budget for these purposes will make it easier for ultra-Orthodox politicians to frame the tax as a different step than the previous government’s. “Calcalist” learned that Bar Siman Tov and other officials in the Ministry of Health tried to promote the retention of the tax in exchange for “designated revenues” that would be claimed in favor of promoting a healthy lifestyle.
The Treasury also wanted to see the sugar tax remain in place, at least partially, and understand very well that increasing the budget for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle will make it easier to keep the tax politically. The Treasury are ready to put their hands in their pockets, but strongly oppose earmarking the revenues permanently and clearly for the Ministry of Health. This is not just a struggle of power, but a horizontal view of the Treasury and the international organizations according to which the creation of mechanisms that bypass the original budget should be avoided as much as possible.
But in front of the Treasury officials stood Moshe Bar Siman Tov, who was appointed by Deri, before his disqualification at the High Court, to the Director General of the Ministry of Health. Bar Siman Tov was a freed citizen at the time the tax was imposed by the previous government, but he enthusiastically supported it, tweeting on Twitter that all revenues from taxing sugary drinks should be earmarked for a dedicated fund that will invest in actions to promote a healthy lifestyle. Bar Siman Tov, a graduate of the budget department at the Ministry of Finance, believed that in this case the accepted rules for budget management should be deviated from, and a dedicated fund should be created to which all revenues from this tax would be directed. Although the coloring of the revenues for health purposes will make it easier for the politicians to return the tax, it is difficult to see the treasury giving up.
The emphasis that the current government places on a budgetary supplement for advocacy efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle, will allow it to escape public criticism even in the case of canceling the tax, which is considered by professionals to be the most effective tool for reducing consumption. Deputy Minister Uri Makleb, who in 2016 signed a bill to tax sugary drinks, says that he is opposed to the tax because “taxation does not lead to public education but only to the cost of living, so we must start with outreach activities.” Makleb, who is responsible for the Socio-Economic Development Authority of the ultra-Orthodox society, agreed with the Ministry of Health on an information campaign to reduce the consumption of sugary drinks.