Debts worth around $23 billion restructured in Turkey: Minister

ANKARA

AA photo

Personal and corporate debts worth 77.6 billion Turkish Liras ($22.7 billion) have been restructured in line with a law on the Restructuring of Certain Public Receivables, also referred to as the “Tax Amnesty,” Finance Minister Naci Ağbal said Nov. 28. 

Ağbal noted that 4.14 billion liras worth of debts had been paid in line with the law, which entered into force in August to enable the restructuring of outstanding tax and other public receivables, adding that the related payments were expected to reach 13 billion liras by the end of November. 

“Some 4.8 million of 6.3 million eligible people applied to restructure their debts. These results are very satisfying for us,” he said at a press meeting to share the results of the law, for which the applications ended on Nov. 25. 

All kinds of taxes, tax assessments, customs duties, administrative fines, insurance premiums, social security premiums, unemployment portions and related interest and late payment charges related to the period before June 30 were encompassed by the law. 

As part of the restructuring program, a certain amount of taxes, penalties and interest payments were reduced, with the remaining amount being payable in lump sums or in six to 18 installments that extend to a period of 12 to 36 months, subject to inflation. However, citizens could also opt to make the payments over a shorter period of time. The payments will commence at the end of November.


Restructured debts doubled

Through a similar regulation in 2011, around 40 billion liras in debts were restructured, meaning that the restructured debts almost doubled compared to the previous regulation with the latest law. 

In the scope of the latest law, a total of 3.2 billion liras in income tax, 4.8 billion liras in corporate tax, 15.5 billion in value added tax (VAT), 1.8 billion liras in special consumption tax, 1.7 billion liras in motorized vehicle tax and 1.4 billion liras in traffic fines were restructured. 

In addition, 166 sports clubs applied to restructure their debts worth 552 million liras, said Ağbal. 

A total of 1,148 municipalities restructured around 3.6 billion liras in debts in the scope of the law, he added.