The Cancer Society today (Wednesday) submitted a petition to the High Court demanding conditional orders for the complete and immediate cancellation of the tax exemption on smoking products entering Israel and claims: “This is a life-threatening subsidy that creates a severe distortion that has no substantive justification.” The petition was filed against the Minister of Finance , the Minister of Health, the Finance Committee of the Knesset and the Airports Authority.
In the petition submitted by the attorneys’ office that. Horowitz & Co. states: “The government of Israel has decided to put an end to the subsidy of life-threatening smoking products, which are purchased duty-free and enter Israel in order to compare the tax imposed on them in Israel, and the tax in duty-free. The government has authorized the Minister of Finance to use the authority granted to him in the Purchase Tax Law, and cancel the exemption.
“Since the exemption has not been abolished, the catastrophic damages to public health and the public purse are piling up. Smoking is one of the most significant threats to public health, causing serious illness, disability and premature death.”
It is also written that “in the State of Israel, where the rate of smokers is particularly high and is about 30% higher than the average in the OECD countries, the consumption of smoking products claims the lives of about 8,000 women and men every year, shortens life expectancy by about 10-15 years, increases Dramatically increases the risk of contracting different types of cancer, vascular, heart and lung diseases, causes disabilities, widens social gaps between different populations and the cost to the health system and the economy is estimated at billions of shekels every year.”
“In order to combat this phenomenon, the state imposes, similar to what is customary in the world, a dedicated purchase tax. This taxation policy is based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the Tobacco Control Convention, the position of the Ministries of Health and Finance, and scientific studies. Recently, the Minister of Finance has already installed orders directing a general increase in the tax on all smoking products, which were unanimously approved by the finance committee. On the other hand, the association claims that smoking products purchased duty free continue to benefit from tax exemption and are sold at a lower price than anywhere else in Israel.”
The Cancer Society added: “As a result of the subsidy, duty free stores have become the largest store selling smoking products in Israel, which holds a share of about ten percent of the cigarette market consumed in Israel. This subsidy endangers lives, creates a severe distortion and has no objective justification. A cigarette purchased at duty free has the same damage to the damage of a cigarette purchased anywhere else in Israel, and it has the same devastating consequences.”
The association also blamed the Minister of Finance, who, according to them, “participated in the conclusion that the subsidy for smoking products should be abolished and accordingly submitted a draft order to the Finance Committee, but he suddenly decided to withdraw from it, radically, and install another order under it, according to which only in 2028, the exemption from tax on Smoking products for those entering Israel.
“The meaning is a serious injury to public health which results from an improper deal that was forged behind the backs of the professional ranks in the government ministries and outside the walls of the finance committee,” they clarified. “And it originates from the Minister of Finance’s submission to an obviously foreign consideration by a member of the Finance Committee, who stated that he was preventing the installation of the original decree in favor of the employees of the Airport Authority who are his constituents.”
“The public interest has been hijacked in favor of foreign and improper considerations, the citizens of Israel will pay with their health, the state budget has lost one hundred million shekels every year for the next few years and billions of shekels that the health system will continue to spend on the harms of smoking, while the State of Israel is yearning for an improvement in the health system and budgets, especially in light of the war of iron swords.”
The association claims that the Minister of Finance’s decision to avoid canceling the tax exemption was made for reasons outside of his authority: “It illegally violates the government’s decision and deviates from the purpose of the enabling law, it is not based on a minimal factual and professional infrastructure, it was made while weighing extraneous, non-material considerations, and it is extremely unreasonable and disproportionate , in view of her violation of the constitutional right to life and the right to health.”