Earthquake tax money spent on national projects says minister
Earthquake tax money spent on national projects says minister
Finance Minister Mehmet Þimþek answered questions on the fate of earthquake taxes today. Þimþek said the were spent on national projects.
After the lacking and disorganized response by the government to Van's earthquake, the special taxes were at a center of a heated debate.
Þimþek said today during a press meeting that "collected taxes were spent on projects that mattered to all 74 million people living in Turkey" and added that "the practice of collecting taxes for a sole purpose is not perceived as a correct method within international taxation procedure."
Declarations that stirred up even more controversy as it was not clear how much was indeed allocated to prevention.
Þimþek also pointed out that these taxes were introduced by their predecessors as a temporary tax but later made their way into permanent use before the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power.
"We did not implement a new tax called ‘earthquake tax,’" Þahin said. "We just continued to collect taxes the way the previous government did."
Six new taxes were put into practice after the Marmara earthquake in 1999, which caused the death of more than 20,000 people. The money were supposedly needed to repair damages done by the disaster and fund projects aimed at earthquake preparedness. One of these taxes is the "special communications tax" (ÖÝV) which became permanent in 2003.
The ÖÝV amounts to 25 percent of monthly telephone bills, landlines and cellular alike.
In the first 10 months of 2011, the Finance Ministry has collected 3.3 billion Turkish Liras through ÖÝV.
After the lacking and disorganized response by the government to Van's earthquake, the special taxes were at a center of a heated debate.
Þimþek said today during a press meeting that "collected taxes were spent on projects that mattered to all 74 million people living in Turkey" and added that "the practice of collecting taxes for a sole purpose is not perceived as a correct method within international taxation procedure."
Declarations that stirred up even more controversy as it was not clear how much was indeed allocated to prevention.
Þimþek also pointed out that these taxes were introduced by their predecessors as a temporary tax but later made their way into permanent use before the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power.
"We did not implement a new tax called ‘earthquake tax,’" Þahin said. "We just continued to collect taxes the way the previous government did."
Six new taxes were put into practice after the Marmara earthquake in 1999, which caused the death of more than 20,000 people. The money were supposedly needed to repair damages done by the disaster and fund projects aimed at earthquake preparedness. One of these taxes is the "special communications tax" (ÖÝV) which became permanent in 2003.
The ÖÝV amounts to 25 percent of monthly telephone bills, landlines and cellular alike.
In the first 10 months of 2011, the Finance Ministry has collected 3.3 billion Turkish Liras through ÖÝV.
