# Ministry of Finance (Israel)

The Israeli Ministry of Finance (Hebrew: מִשְׂרַד הָאוֹצָר, romanized: Misrad HaOtzar) is the main economic ministry of the Government of Israel. It is responsible for planning and implementing the Government's overall economic policy, as well as setting targets for fiscal policy, preparing the draft State Budget and monitoring implementation of the approved budget. The ministry also manages state revenues, collects direct and indirect taxes and promotes nonresident investments. In addition, the ministry conducts economic relations with foreign governments, economic organizations and the international community. The ministry regulates the state owned companies sector and the capital market, savings and insurance. The ministry is also responsible for auxiliary units for government ministries in motor vehicles, computer services, printing and government procurement.
The Finance Ministry is headed by the Finance Minister, currently Bezalel Smotrich. There is also occasionally a Deputy Minister of Finance. The permanent staff of the ministry include the Director General, the department directors responsible for the Budget Department, the Accountant General, the Wage and Labor Agreements Department and the accreditation units (the Tax Authority, the Government Companies Authority, the Capital Market, Insurance, and Savings Authority and the Governmental Printer).

## Main functions

The units of the Ministry of Finance may be categorized by the three types of service they provide:
* Government staff services – departments that act on behalf of units and operations of the government: budgeting of government operations (Budget Department), operations of the Accountant General, regulation of the state-owned companies (Government Companies Authority), economic services in the United States, and control and auditing of Finance Ministry operations (Internal Audit Unit).
* General economic staff services – departments that act in matters pertaining to the economy at large: management of state revenues (State Revenue Administration), and regulation of the capital market, insurance, and savings (Capital Market, Insurance, and Savings Department). The Tax Authority implements the Income Tax and Property Tax ordinances, Customs, and VAT.
* Auxiliary services for government ministries – motor-vehicle services (Government Vehicle Administration), computer services for the tax departments (Computer Service), printing (the Government Printer, a business enterprise owned by the Ministry of Finance) and Government Procurement Administration.

## List of ministers

| # | Minister | Party | Government | Term start | Term end | Notes |
| 1 | Eliezer Kaplan | Mapai | P, 1, 2, 3 | 14 May 1948 | 25 June 1952 | |
| 2 | Levi Eshkol | Mapai | 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 | 25 June 1952 | 26 June 1963 | |
| 3 | Pinchas Sapir | Mapai Alignment Labor Party | 11, 12, 13 | 26 June 1963 | 5 August 1968 | |
| 4 | Ze'ev Sherf | Alignment | 13, 14 | 5 August 1968 | 15 December 1969 | |
| – | Pinchas Sapir | Alignment | 15, 16 | 15 December 1969 | 3 June 1974 | |
| 5 | Yehoshua Rabinovitz | Alignment | 17 | 3 June 1974 | 20 June 1977 | |
| 6 | Simha Erlich | Likud | 18 | 20 June 1977 | 7 November 1979 | |
| 7 | Yigal Hurvitz | Likud | 18 | 7 November 1979 | 13 January 1981 | |
| 8 | Yoram Aridor | Likud | 18, 19, 20 | 21 January 1981 | 15 October 1983 | |
| 9 | Yigal Cohen-Orgad | Likud | 20 | 18 October 1983 | 13 September 1984 | |
| 10 | Yitzhak Moda'i | Likud | 21 | 13 September 1984 | 16 April 1986 | |
| 11 | Moshe Nissim | Likud | 21, 22 | 16 April 1986 | 22 December 1988 | |
| 12 | Shimon Peres | Alignment | 23 | 22 December 1988 | 15 March 1990 | |
| 13 | Yitzhak Shamir | Likud | 23 | 15 March 1990 | 11 June 1990 | Serving Prime Minister |
| – | Yitzhak Moda'i | New Liberal Party | 24 | 11 June 1990 | 13 July 1992 | |
| 14 | Avraham Shochat | Labor Party | 25, 26 | 13 July 1992 | 18 June 1996 | |
| 15 | Dan Meridor | Likud | 27 | 18 June 1996 | 20 June 1997 | |
| 16 | Benjamin Netanyahu | Likud | 27 | 20 June 1997 | 9 July 1997 | Serving Prime Minister |
| 17 | Yaakov Neeman | Likud | 27 | 9 July 1997 | 18 December 1998 | |
| – | Benjamin Netanyahu | Likud | 27 | 18 December 1998 | 23 February 1999 | Serving Prime Minister |
| 18 | Meir Sheetrit | Likud | 27 | 23 February 1999 | 6 July 1999 | |
| – | Avraham Shochat | One Israel | 28 | 6 July 1999 | 7 March 2001 | |
| 19 | Silvan Shalom | Likud | 29 | 7 March 2001 | 28 February 2003 | |
| – | Benjamin Netanyahu | Likud | 30 | 28 February 2003 | 9 August 2005 | |
| 20 | Ehud Olmert | Likud Kadima | 30 | 9 August 2005 | 7 November 2005 | |
| 21 | Avraham Hirschson | Kadima | 31 | 4 May 2006 | 22 April 2007 | |
| – | Ehud Olmert | Kadima | 31 | 22 April 2007 | 4 July 2007 | Serving Prime Minister |
| 22 | Roni Bar-On | Kadima | 31 | 4 July 2007 | 31 March 2009 | |
| 23 | Yuval Steinitz | Likud | 32 | 31 March 2009 | 18 March 2013 | |
| 24 | Yair Lapid | Yesh Atid | 33 | 18 March 2013 | 2 December 2014 | |
| – | Benjamin Netanyahu | Likud | 33 | 2 December 2014 | 14 May 2015 | Serving Prime Minister |
| 25 | Moshe Kahlon | Kulanu, Likud | 34 | 14 May 2015 | 17 May 2020 | |
| 26 | Israel Katz | Likud | 35 | 17 May 2020 | 13 June 2021 | |
| 27 | Avigdor Lieberman | Yisrael Beiteinu | 36 | 13 June 2021 | 29 December 2022 | |
| 28 | Bezalel Smotrich | Religious Zionist | 37 | 29 December 2022 | | |

### Deputy ministers

| # | Minister | Party | Government | Term start | Term end |
| 1 | Yitzhak Coren | Mapai | 10 | 30 May 1962 | 26 June 1963 |
| 2 | Zvi Dinstein | Alignment Labor Party Alignment | 13, 14 | 24 July 1967 | 15 December 1969 |
| – | Zvi Dinstein | Alignment | 15 | 22 December 1969 | 10 March 1974 |
| 3 | Yehezkel Flomin | Likud | 18 | 28 June 1977 | 30 July 1979 |
| 4 | Haim Kaufman | Likud | 19, 20 | 28 August 1981 | 13 September 1984 |
| 5 | Adiel Amorai | Alignment | 21, 22 | 24 September 1984 | 22 December 1988 |
| 6 | Yossi Beilin | Alignment | 23 | 26 December 1988 | 11 June 1990 |
| 7 | Yosef Azran | Shas | 24 | 2 July 1990 | 13 July 1992 |
| 8 | Rafael Pinhasi | Shas | 25 | 4 August 1992 | 31 December 1992 |
| 9 | David Magen | Likud | 27 | 18 June 1996 | 20 May 1997 |
| 10 | Nissim Dahan | Shas | 28 | 5 August 1999 | 11 July 2000 |
| 11 | Yitzhak Cohen | Shas | 29 | 2 May 2001 | 20 May 2002 |
| – | Yitzhak Cohen | Shas | 29 | 3 June 2002 | 28 February 2003 |
| – | Yitzhak Cohen | Shas | 32 | 1 April 2009 | 18 March 2013 |
| 12 | Mickey Levy | Yesh Atid | 33 | 18 March 2013 | 4 December 2014 |
| – | Yitzhak Cohen | Shas | 34, 35 | 19 May 2015 | 14 October 2020 |