Turkey welcomes New Year with tax hikes

ANKARA

Turkey welcomed the New Year with hikes on tobacco and alcohol taxes just a few days after announcing increases in fees, stamp taxes and official fines for traffic and tax offences.

According to a statement released in the Official Gazette on Jan. 1, fixed taxes charged on alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and tobacco products have been raised.

While the tax rates on both alcoholic beverages and cigarettes have been maintained, the minimum fixed tax rates witnessed a raise.

Therefore, the fixed tax rate for beer, which used to be 0.74 Turkish Liras per liter, has been raised by 15 percent to 0.85 liras. The fixed tax rate for wine has been increased by 16 percent to 4.59 liras and by 16 percent for sparkling wine to 31.02 liras.

Meanwhile, the tax ratio in tobacco is kept at 64.25 percent, with the minimum fixed tax ratio increasing by 5 percent to 0.19 liras.