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10 - Taxation of Natural Resources

from Part II - Reforms and Their Effects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2021

Avi Ben-Bassat
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Reuben Gronau
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Asaf Zussman
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Summary

This chapter surveys the development of fiscal policy with regard to revenues from exhaustible natural resources. The Oil and Gas Law of 1952 determined that royalties would be paid to the State on the revenues from a discovery by a privately owned concessionaire at the rate of 12.5 percent. Following the discovery in the early 2000s of large gas fields in Israel’s economic waters (in the amount of about one trillion cubic meters), the government created a committee to evaluate the policy in Israel and compare it to that in other countries. It was found that the taxation of natural resources in Israel (Government Take) was much lower than the world average (30 percent vs. 63 percent of profit). The government and the Knesset adopted the recommendations of the committee (which became Sheshinski Law I in 2011), according to which a progressive tax on excess profit (“rent”) – a more efficient instrument than royalties – would also be imposed at the rate of between 20 and 50 percent, depending on the level of profit. After the amendment to the law, the government expected to collect 60 percent or more of the concessionaires’ profit (equal to the average Government Take in the OECD). The law was expanded in 2014 to other natural resources, primarily potash from the Dead Sea (Sheshinski Law II). This chapter also discusses the Wealth Fund established by law in 2011, in which the revenues from the tax on excess profits will be deposited. Most of the investments will be made abroad thereby preventing the Dutch Disease (i.e., the effect of the appreciation in the exchange rate). Revenues – in the amount of 2 percent of GNP – will be deposited in the Wealth Fund starting from 2020.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Israeli Economy, 1995–2017
Light and Shadow in a Market Economy
, pp. 307 - 326
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Boadway, R., and Keen, M.. (2015). Rent Taxes and Royalties in Designing Fiscal Regimes for Nonrenewable Resources. In Halvorsen, R. and Layton, D. (eds.), Handbook on the Economics of Natural Resources. Cheltenham: Edwin Elgar, 97139.Google Scholar
Dead Sea Concession Law, 5721. 1961. [Hebrew]Google Scholar
Humphreys, M., Sachs, J. D., and Stiglitz, J. E., eds. (2007). Escaping the Resource Curse. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Ministry of Finance (2011). Conclusions of the Committee to Examine Fiscal Policy regarding Oil and Gas Resources in Israel. Jerusalem. [Hebrew]Google Scholar
Ministry of Finance (2014). Conclusions of the Committee to Examine Fiscal Policy on the Share of the State in Exchange for the Exploitation of National Natural Resources by Private Entities. Jerusalem. [Hebrew]Google Scholar

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