Religion Magazine
As part of the "reforms" passed by the Finance Ministry, the VAT will be going up on June 1 from 17% to 18%.
Does anybody remember when it was actually dropped a few years ago from 16% to 15.5% with a timetable of it being lowered even further in the following years? Since then it was raised back to 16%, then 17% and now it is being raised to 18%.
By law, when the VAT is changed, prices must be updated immediately. That means on June 1, at midnight, all stores must have already, by law, updated the pricing of the products on their shelves.
The problem is that Friday is May 31, and Shabbos is June 1. That means, according to the law, there will be a lot of chilul shabbos involved in the changing of the prices this week. Stores will have to hire extra employees to work Friday night to change all the prices in time for midnight.
MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) realized the problem and petitioned the Finance Minister to therefore postpone the VAT increase to June 2, in order to avoid potentially mass chillul shabbos. Lapid agreed, and the VAT increase was delayed by a day.
(source: Israel Hayom)
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