Debts of 6.3 million Turks may be restructured soon: Minister

These debts totaled around 90 billion Turkish Liras ($30 billion), he noted. 

“The receivables by the tax offices are 90 billion liras with a total of 6.3 million indebted citizens. We can restructure these debts and will delete the debts which value at 50 liras (around $17),” he noted. 

The number of files of citizens who were indebted less than 50 liras to the tax office was 29 million, added Ağbal. 

The restructuring plan will also cover some 67 billion liras (around $22 billion) of debts to the Social Security Institutions (SGK), according to the minister. 

“With this regulation, some additional income can be secured in this year’s budget, but I cannot name any exact figure now,” he said, adding that the ministry has also been working on a plan to make some cuts in the debts of citizens who make their payments on time. 

Ağbal also noted that the cabinet continued to apply its reform agenda.

“We have a robust structural reform agenda. We are quite determined to keep realizing these reforms,” he said, adding that the continuance of fiscal discipline was the key for them. 

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım also said on Aug. 4 that Turkey would not compromise on monetary policy or tight fiscal discipline in the wake of a failed coup last month that attempted to topple the government. 
Ağbal noted that some 15,000 new teachers will be recruited for the new year and the required recruitment would also be made for other public bodies after a series of comprehensive layoffs in the framework of the probe on the coup attempt. 

Ağbal noted that Turkey’s Financial Crime Investigation Board (MASAK) and other authorities will take the required steps to track the assets which were carried abroad by the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), blamed for the failed coup attempt of July 15.

“Some members of this organization have tried to withdraw money and carried this to foreign countries. As the Finance Ministry, we have now suspended any suspected money transfers,” he added. 

Meanwhile, the tracking process will start when any documents are found or serious suspicions arise about the existence of any money laundering or terror financing activities in transactions through banks, financing and factoring companies, equity capital funds, asset management companies or notaries, said the decree which was published in the Official Gazette on July 29. 

The respective parties will be responsible for reporting such transactions along with supportive evidence to MASAK and will demand the transaction be suspended.