State Comptroller Says Business Licensing Reform Failed Amid Widespread Noncompliance

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman published a report on the business licensing reform that found the effort has largely failed to take hold. According to the report, about 28,000 of Israel’s 171,000 businesses are still operating without a license, despite the reform’s goal of shortening and simplifying the licensing process.

The report also says 95% of local authorities are not connected to the national system, and that half of the businesses eligible for an expedited track were not even aware it existed. The findings point to broad implementation failures, with responsibility shared by local authorities and government ministries.

The comptroller said that 16% of the 259 authorities did not provide the Interior Ministry with any information about the state of businesses in their jurisdictions. In addition, 81.5% of the authorities did not establish joint service centers for licensing bodies.