Doğan Holding rules out baseless claims over Petrol Ofisi

ISTANBUL

The Doğan Holding vice president responsible for corporate communication, Ahter Kutadgu, made a statement March 22 on recent baseless claims about Petrol Ofisi, an oil retailer it formerly owned. 

The statement focusing on each claim, naming them “slander,” is as follows: 

“Baseless claims about Petrol Ofisi (POAŞ), which have been brought to attention several times before, and have been cleared several times through tax examinations and lawsuits, are being mentioned again with an indictment taking place in the media. We are presenting the baseless claims and the truth about POAŞ again to the public opinion.

All of them are baseless... All of them are slanders. 


SLANDER ONE:

PAYING DEFICIT IMPORT TAX

Zero tax is being imposed.

The state imposes zero customs tax on fuel product imports. Therefore, claiming that POAŞ committed tax fraud in its imported fuel products is nonsense.


SLANDER TWO:

MAKING UNJUST PROFIT

There is not even an unjust penny.

As an open-to-the-public company, POAŞ has been regularly inspected by state institutions. There is no illegal side to its processes and imports. There has not been even one unjust penny gained. 


SLANDER THREE:

TAX EVADING THROUGH TAX EXEMPTION

Zero tax cannot be evaded.

What part of a tax that is already zero can be changed? What part of a tax that is already zero can be evaded? There is no need for long explanations. This claim is also nonsense and even absurd.


SLANDER FOUR:

JUGGLING ON THE DOCUMENTS OF THE FUEL SHIPS

An imaginary claim.

POAŞ has not made any forgery of any of the documents. There cannot be any tangible proof to support this claim. It is impossible to understand the claim of forgery on a document in a case the tax of which is zero. This is a totally unreal, totally imaginary claim.


SLANDER FIVE:

FORMING A FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

A very ugly slander.

This claim about Aydın Doğan is very ugly, very inappropriate and very immoral. There is no answer to be given to this claim. We can only leave the rest to God for those who put forward this ugly and inappropriate claim.


SLANDER SIX:

DOĞAN AND ÖZİNCE ARE ‘MEMBERS OF A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION’

A relentless attack. 

Calling Aydın Doğan, who has been serving our country’s economy for 60 years, who is an honest, law-respecting, and honorable businessman, who creates jobs for tens of thousands of people, who is the founder and honorary president of one of Turkey’s few companies “a member of a criminal organization” is nothing more than a relentless attack. Aydın Doğan works according to the law; he does not form criminal organizations. Also, Aydın Doğan and (Iş Bank Chairman) Ersin Özince are not direct partners in POAŞ and even this fact is nothing more than proof showing how carelessly this slander was generated. 


SLANDER SEVEN:

CAUSING A LOSS WORTH 6.3 MILLION TO THE STATE

There is no loss made to the state.

The claim that the state lost 6.3 million Turkish Liras implies a short value added tax (VAT) payment. This claim is total nonsense. By its definition, VAT is a tax paid by the last user. The final VAT paid by POAŞ is calculated over the VAT paid by its distributors.  Any loss or deficit payment in terms of customs tax and VAT caused by imports to POAŞ is not the case.