Economy Minister Nir Barkat yesterday (Sunday) submitted a bill under which large importers will be limited in the amount of brands they can sell. According to the various reports in the media, the Ministry of Finance opposes the submission of the aforementioned law at this time. The Director General of the Ministry of Economy Amnon Merhav talked about this with Anat Davidov and Yael Ayalon on 103fm.
"Comrades, it's on fire. The economy is on fire, prices are on fire and we are determined to fight the cost of living in the State of Israel. This is one of the cornerstones of Minister Barkat, to fight the cost of living here. We are organizing, we prepared the materials, we checked things, both legally and professionally, and we left Let's go and now we're stepping up. We don't have time to continue with this shanti banty of price increases," Merhav said.
According to him, "Last week I warned the big monopolies and the main players who thought to underestimate our determination in the fight against the cost of living, not to try us."
Regarding the reports about the Ministry of Finance's opposition to the move, he claimed: "There is a government here that works together with one common goal, to fight the cost of living, and everyone does their part. As far as I understand, both Minister Barkat and Minister Smotrich see eye to eye on the main moves being made here." .
"This is not a bypass. Even then there was a law that was promoted through the Competition Authority, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Economy. The people of the Budget Division at the Ministry of Finance wanted to take a pause and think, and examine certain consequences of this law. At the same time, we announced that we would promote it. Last time, in these two months, we also examined Once again the consequences brought up by the finance people." According to him, "We did not find that things justify not enacting this law, so we decided to move it forward because that is what is right. There are very strong power groups here among the importers who dictate very high prices thanks to the basket of brands they own and we are determined to break up this event," he noted space.
He later elaborated on the purpose of the proposal: "I don't want to talk about one company or another. A company that also owns razors that are a brand, as well as deodorants or diapers from another brand or manufacturer, it will have to decide what it separates from. We will tell it, 'You will focus on the brand one or one manufacturer, let's say the razors, and release the marketing of the diapers to the market.' the diapers and the deodorants and the razors, because this strong basket allows them a very strong bargaining position with the retailers."
"Structural dissolutions have already taken place in the State of Israel, such as in the cellular market," he added, "the same when they separated the credit card companies. Sometimes the government has to intervene in a market failure that has occurred here, and this intervention is not easy, but it is necessary. In such a situation of a centralized and uncompetitive economy which is targeted at a few powerful groups, this is exactly the place for the government to take drastic measures to correct this market failure."
Finally, he referred to a possible petition by the companies to the High Court and said: "I think that if they go, they will fail. In the end, the High Court also sits among its people. We act according to the authority given to the inspector of prices, and we all travel abroad, buy deodorant or toothpaste or a razor and pay a quarter of what we pay here in Israel, so we all understand that the regulator should intervene and put an end to the celebration this".
