Ministry of Justice decided to grant a debt exemption of NIS 65 million to ICL

About two years after the Water Court ruled that the Water Law applies to the production activities of the Dead Sea Works, and ostensibly paved the way for charging the company for the water, the Ministry of Justice decided in recent days to grant a debt exemption of NIS 65 million, which the Dead Sea Works failed to pay for the water. .
As of February 2021, the total water debt of the Dead Sea factories controlled by Idan Ofer was NIS 83 million, and Mekorot issued inquiries about the unpaid clearing debts.
For a long time, the Water Authority has asked Mekorot to refrain from enforcing debt collection, claiming that an investigation is underway on an issue that is expected to end soon.
It now turns out that the inquiry conducted by the Ministry of Justice at the request of the Water Authority ended, while the position of the Dead Sea factories was accepted and an interpretation in which the company claimed that it should not pay most of the debt accumulated to its credit. As far as is known, the position is that any drilling within the plant area is part of the concession and therefore does not have to pay for the water. Payment will only be paid for off-fence drilling.
At the same time, the legal opinion underlying the decision of the Ministry of Justice has not been published so far. According to various sources, the opinion adopts the position of the Dead Sea Works, in contrast to the position of Mekorot and also the position of environmental organizations, who argued that by law the Dead Sea Works should pay for the water, like any other water producer.
The Water Court ruled in August 2019 in a petition filed by the organization Adam Teva VeDin that the Dead Sea factories are subject to the Water Law.
An appeal filed by the organization back in 2015 claims that the Water Authority does not use the powers conferred on it by the Water Law and must act immediately to regulate the activities of the Dead Sea factories, in order to ensure protection of the Dead Sea and to stop further dilution. This was done by issuing a production license, setting conditions, limiting the amount of water the company is allowed to pump dead water, and setting additional guidelines.
The panel headed by Judge Ron Sokol accepted the petition and ruled that a production license was required for operations carried out by the Dead Sea Company, and he rejected the claims of the Dead Sea Works in this matter. The panel stated that the franchise bill granted to the company does not restrict the applicability of the Water Law and does not allow the company to produce water as long as it does not have a production license. "According to the Water Authority's response, it turns out that for many years the Water Authority has not been interested in actions taken by the Dead Sea Company," Judge Sokol wrote. He concluded that the Water Authority must issue a license within six months that will give the company, and obliges the Dead Sea Company to pay expenses.
Following this procedure, in March 2020 a production license was issued for the Dead Sea factories and in May 2021 it was replaced with a new license that included an increase in the quantities of water that the factories can pump, despite the purpose of the water law to prevent water depletion. Two months ago, in mid-August, Adam Teva VeDin contacted the director of the Water Authority, Giora Shaham, and asked him, once again, to act to collect a fee for water fees from the Dead Sea factories.
The organization claimed that the Water Law also imposes on the Dead Sea factories an obligation imposed on every water producer: to pay a production levy to the State Treasury according to the amount of water it has produced. The collection of the levy, it was argued, came to reflect a general public interest in the use of national natural resources. The obligation to pay in return for the use of the public's natural resources becomes even more valid in light of the direct responsibility of the Dead Sea factories for the depletion of the Dead Sea and serves a number of interests, including the public interest.
The organization's position was that the obligation to pay royalties under the law does not exempt the Dead Sea factories from paying water fees, which are a derivative of the production license and are imposed on every water producer. The organization claimed through attorney Lee Sheen Goldenberg that "the Water Authority's failure to regulate the payment regime for the water produced by the Dead Sea factories ... constitutes a violation of the authority's obligation under the law."
 Despite this, the Water Authority did not act to collect the water fee for the activities of the Dead Sea factories, and for many months various inquiries were made to it on the subject, also by Mekorot.
The Water Authority's response to Adam Teva VeDin's request came a few days ago as a response from the Water Authority's legal bureau, which stated, among other things: This claim even after receiving the ruling of the Water Court. "
The answer itself states that since 2020, the charges are for production from wells that are not within the concession area, and that as long as the response from the Ministry of Justice allows for the establishment of charges for production from wells in the concession area, the Water Authority will direct sources to issue appropriate charges for this production.
The Water Authority stated, "The decision of the Ministry of Justice will have no effect on the water tariff. For this very reason, the Water Authority recommended that Mekorot wait with the collection process of production in the concession area since the issue is clearly with the Ministry of Justice." The payment of tens of millions of NIS in full.