Bethel Finance: Minister adopts Zelekha report on car imports

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"The Zelekha committee recommendations will boost competition in the motor vehicle market. This is one area that Israelis deal with throughout their lives. Spending on cars is the second largest expense by Israelis," said Minister of Transport Israel Katz at today's press conference to announce that he has accepted the principles of the report by the public committee to increase competition in the motor vehicles market, chaired by Prof. Yaron Zelekha.

"From the moment I took up the post, I thought it necessary to increase competition in the motor vehicles market," said Katz. "As I read the drafts and the final report, I felt that very thorough work was done here, with significant recommendations."

Katz said that he would cooperate with all parts of the government on the Zelekha committee. "The relevant officials at the Ministry of Finance have told me that they accept the main points of the report. There are minor disagreements on some items."

As "Globes" reported yesterday, Katz will set up an inter-ministerial team to implement the Zelekha committee recommendations. The team will include members from the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance Budget Department, and the Antitrust Authority. A representative from the Israel Tax Authority will also participate in order to broaden the recommendations and formulate supplementary measures to increase competition in the motor vehicles market. The team is due to submit to Katz within 60 days a detailed work plan for implementing the recommendations.

Katz said that implementation of the recommendations "will bring about the reduction in car prices and increase the range of models available for importing into Israel."

However, even before the team was set up and the report signed, the Ministry of Transport made sure to grant a benefit to the wealthy to immediately allow the personal import of US cars that are not manufactured in the US, but which meet US standards.

Zelehka: A shame and disgrace

"I have never encountered such a non-competitive market in which a few dozen big businesses created a cartel and exploited the consumer," said Zelekha. "As a result, the importers and manufacturers enjoyed scandalous profit margins. It's a shame and disgrace that the market was not overhauled."

Zelekha expressed the hope that the privately owned media would be able to overcome the scale of advertising by these importers in order to provide an objective and supportive opinion in favor of the reform. "Israel's media have played a key, but negative, role, in that Israel is ranked 81st in the world in terms of competitiveness, and is the poorest country in the West," he said.