Official Gazette / November 24 – 30, 2025

With a decree from the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), new judge appointments have been made to the Istanbul 40th High Criminal Court, which will hear the IMM (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality) case. Following the appointments, "2 panels" have been formed within the same court. It is likely that one panel will exclusively handle the IMM file, and since the file consists of over 400 defendants and an indictment spanning thousands of pages, the trials will be held daily from morning until evening without interruption.

With the decision of the Health Services Pricing Commission, drug pricing criteria have changed. Following the new decision, the Social Security Institution (SGK) will pay up to 6% more than the cheapest among equivalent drugs. The price difference that will arise when purchasing the drugs written on the prescription from the pharmacy will be determined in this way. Genital aesthetic operations such as labiaplasty and perineoplasty will no longer be covered by the state, except in very exceptional cases of medical necessity. If a patient receiving home care goes to the hospital for outpatient treatment (emergency situations are also included in these cases), the SGK will not pay for home health services for the following 10 days.

With Presidential Decree No. 10658, amendments were made to the Regulation on Temporary Protection. According to the new regulations that will enter into force on January 1, 2026, those under temporary protection will now also pay a participation fee. Those under temporary protection who do not have the ability to pay will not be able to go directly to private hospitals, except in emergency and mandatory cases.

With the communiqué prepared for Savings Finance Companies, a financial audit mechanism has been developed for organizations known as "so-and-so-home." Although these organizations essentially use every feature of banks' loan/deposit products, they were subject to very few of the endless rules that banks must comply with. Due to this situation, which created unfair competition, such organizations grew at an extraordinary speed, and although they continue their growth trends, they had begun to pose a financial risk to the market in the event of a potential contraction. The communiqué aims to balance the cash inflows and outflows of such institutions and bring them under the control of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

With Presidential Decree No. 10659, the conditions for interest-supported loans provided by Halkbank to tradespeople have been changed. In addition to tax debts, a requirement has been introduced to have no SGK premium debts to benefit from the loan. In the previous regulation, there was an obligation to report what at least 1/3 of the amount was spent on for loans used in 2026, and at least 2/3 for those used in 2027. With the new regulation, the obligation to report expenditures for loans used in 2026 has been abolished, and for 2027, the reporting limit has been reduced to 1/3 of the loan amount.

In accordance with the General Communiqué of the Tax Procedure Law, the revaluation rate to be used for the increase rate of fees and taxes has been announced as 25.49%. Therefore, all fees and taxes will be increased by this rate in 2026.