Authorities probing firms suspected of cartel practices

ANKARA

The Finance Ministry’s Tax Inspection Board has put companies that jack up prices despite no significant rise in costs and sectors where firms are suspected of engaging in cartel practices on its radar.

The board is working to identify firms that make profits above the sector average but failed to report their income properly in tax declarations.

Tax authorities are also inspecting companies that are suspected of engaging in cartel practices in their respective sectors.

As part of those efforts, officials are looking into tax declarations, balance sheets and financials as well as how profits moved in the relevant sectors in the last five years.

Authorities are focusing on products whose prices in the local market are well above their prices abroad which cannot be explained by associated costs such as customs, warehousing, transport and tax, officials told state-run Anadolu Agency.

Inspections are aimed at determining whether companies fix prices by using their dominant position in the market and establishing business relations with other firms to engage in cartel practices in their respective industries.

The results of the review will be passed on to the Trade Ministry and the Competition Authority.

Some companies that constantly increase their prices avoid paying tax through illegal means such as inflating their costs or using false documents, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said on X.

“We will not allow companies to abuse their dominant power in the market,” he added.

“We are taking necessary measures against those which keep raising prices even though costs do not increase and declare low tax,” Şimşek said.