The coasts are ours, the hotels are already ours

According to the Constitution, the coasts are ours. However, in practice, with the state also paving the way, the coasts belong to hotels or mafia-like gangs.  

We understand the coasts, but what does “The hotels are already ours” mean? Let me explain. We are not servants of those who govern the state. We are free individuals who are equal owners of all the state's assets and resources, fundamental rights, and public property. Everything begins with realizing this fact and demanding our rights.

On Sunday, June 30, I wrote in 12 Punto under the headline “A tax proposal: Win-Win.” Under normal circumstances, the corporate tax rate is 25 percent. However, there are companies that, by taking advantage of investment incentive schemes, either pay token taxes or pay nothing at all.  

The main question is this: If a company, for example, should be paying 1 billion liras in taxes but pays nothing, and uses that 1 billion liras to grow the company through new investments, who is the owner of that new investment and the company?

Since tax is, under normal circumstances, an income belonging to the entire society, the citizens should also be the owners of the additional investment. My proposal was for the company to issue shares equal to the amount of this new investment and transfer these shares to the Treasury free of charge. Not only would the state collect the cash tax it did not receive as an asset this time, but the investor would also grow the company they manage and earn more profit in the following period. Both sides would win.

I intend to insist on keeping this proposal on the agenda. It is out of the question for it to come to the agenda during this government's term. I do not think it will enter the agenda of opposition parties that wink at capital or say, “Let our turn come, let us also get a share,” but at the very least, it should take its place on the agenda as a justified social demand.

I must emphasize this clearly. Of course, there will be incentives for new investments and employment. However, all incentives provided without effective planning in every field, from agriculture to industry, from urbanization to education, and all social policies, are useless and only enrich individuals. Incentives must be within a plan, and shares equal to the amount of the incentivized investment must be given to the Treasury. These shares should be evaluated on the stock market after a while to ensure that capital is spread to the base.    

THE HOTELS ARE ALREADY OURS

As for the thesis that “The hotels are already ours.” Recently, I was chatting with my dear friend Bahattin Yücel, one of the former Ministers of Tourism who comes from within the tourism sector. I mentioned this topic a little. Then I asked:

“We see it in the news. There are many hotels. Hundreds of thousands of Euros per week… We hear and read that a bill between 200 thousand liras and 1.5 million liras is issued for a single table for one dinner. However, neither this hotel nor the Turks eating that meal in this hotel pay taxes. We say, ‘Let the tourist with money come, not the penniless tourist.’ We allocate the most beautiful places. The tourist with money comes, but the state cannot earn tax from this business. What kind of business is this, is this tourism?” I ask.

Bahattin Yücel engaged in politics in center-right parties, but he is a politician who comes from a public-minded and leftist tradition.

“Now they will tell us that they are publishing the Communist Manifesto, but the truth of the matter is this,” he said, and explained it very clearly:

“Perhaps in the early days, in the 1980s, when there were no tourism facilities in Turkey, it was right for the state to tell contractors who took jobs from the state, ‘Let us allocate a place for you here, we will also provide tax exemptions, build a hotel, build a holiday village.’ We are not at that point now. This is not tourism.

I am allocating the environment and nature to you. I am allocating Ephesus, Side, Bodrum, Halicarnassus, and as many ancient assets as you can count. I am doing promotion with the taxes I collect from everyone, with everyone's money. I call it economic activity, and I build all your infrastructure with the taxes I collect from everyone again. I am financing the investment you make, and the other investments of the companies you own, by giving up taxes under the name of supporting resource utilization. By deducting the investment you make from taxes, I am actually the one making it. But I cannot benefit from any of these.

According to the Constitution, coasts and beaches are open to the public. But that is not how it happens. Because of the facilities you build, I cannot benefit from the coasts that should be open to the public according to the Constitution. You also do not pay taxes. All the incentives I give have no benefit to the state or the public. 

There is also something like this. When I allocate the environment, nature, and ancient assets to you, and grant tax exemptions, I do it so that you use it for tourism purposes. But you go and use it for other purposes. You build a hotel on a part of the land I allocated to you, and you build a residence on a larger part and sell it as housing. This is misuse, and the state has the right to seize this facility.”

What Bahattin Yücel said last is something like a time bomb without a timer, especially for those who build and sell housing in tourism facilities used for other purposes and for those who buy housing. According to the current government, they are all cronies. Nothing will happen during this period. But let's see if these irregular uses and irregular purchases will enter the agenda of opposition parties that wink at capital or say, “Let our turn come, let us also get a share.”

My proposal is that the licenses of all these irregularly used facilities should be canceled, and all of them, including residences purchased by third parties, should be transferred to the Treasury. The Treasury should rent these tourism facilities, including residences, to international hotel-holiday village chains for operation. It should also pay the residence owners a share of the rent obtained based on construction costs, excluding the land value (because land acquired through allocation or fraudulent sales is public property). According to the Constitution, the coasts and beaches are ours. The facilities we allocate to the country's most beautiful bays and coasts, and whose investments we also finance through taxes, are “already” ours.