חוק-יסוד: משק המדינה (תיקון מס' 10 והוראת שעה לשנת 2020)Basic Law: The State's Economy (Amendment No. 10 and temporary provision for 2020) · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

Section 3B of the Basic Law: The State Economy (hereinafter – the Basic Law) provides that when a fiscal year begins without an approved budget, the government may spend each month an amount equal to 1/12 of the previous annual budget, plus linkage adjustment. In light of the Covid-19 crisis, which led the government to establish emergency regulations including provisions for reducing economic activity, many workers were placed on unpaid leave, other workers were dismissed, and self-employed businesses were forced to close. For this purpose, the government was required to provide solutions requiring budgetary expenditure not currently permitted under the provisions of the aforementioned Section 3B. The Law establishes, as a temporary provision applying until the end of 2020 or until the approval of the 2020 budget, whichever is earlier, that the amount of government expenditure for 2019, from which the monthly expenditure amount in the continuing budget is derived, shall be the net government expenditure amount, including the provision of credit and excluding debt repayments of the fund, provided this does not include such debt repayments to National Insurance combined with the dimension. In addition, it was established that an amount would be allocated solely for the purpose of the Covid-19 crisis. This amount would be spread as a percentage of the 2019 government expenditure amount and would decrease over time. It was further established that the debt repayment to the National Insurance Institute for expenses required to deal with the outbreak of the coronavirus would be allocated an amount not exceeding 16.1 billion shekels. In addition, it was established that the government should be permitted to transfer amounts not utilized in a given month to one of the following months, in accordance with the classification of that surplus amount (whether as part of the continuing budget or as an amount allocated to deal with the coronavirus crisis). It was also established that the Minister of Finance would submit for government approval, by 1 May 2020, a detailed plan regarding the planned uses of the amount allocated to deal with the coronavirus. The government would lay before the Knesset the detailed plan, which would include the items and amounts proposed in the bill. It was further established that insofar as changes exceeding 15% of any component of the detailed plan are required, the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee would be needed for this purpose. Finally, an amendment was established to Section 3B of the Basic Law, not as a temporary provision, that all details of expected and planned government expenditures under the said section would be published on the Ministry of Finance website; in addition, details of expenditures regarding the Ministry of Defense and the security bodies would be laid before the joint committee of the Knesset Finance Committee and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, pursuant to Section 18 of the Budget Foundations Law, 1985. The Minister of Finance would also report to the Knesset Finance Committee, once a month, on the aforementioned government expenditures.

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