ATO delegation meets with Treasury and Finance Minister Şimşek

The Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO) December Ordinary Assembly Meeting was held with the participation of Chairman of the Board Ali Bahar, the board of directors, and assembly members. The meeting began with a moment of silence and the singing of the National Anthem for our 12 soldiers who were martyred in the Claw-Lock Operation. Making evaluations regarding the business world and the city's agenda, primarily the minimum wage, 2024 expectations, the Central Bank's policy rate hike, and the traffic problem in the final assembly of ATSO for 2023, ATSO President Ali Bahar noted that they have received investment and allocation applications four times the current capacity at the Korkuteli Organized Industrial Zone (OSB). President Bahar said, "This interest and demand clearly reveal how correct a decision it was to transform the Korkuteli OSB from a marble-specialized OSB into a mixed OSB. Allocation principles, unit prices, long-term allocation payment plans, estimated investment budget, and income-expenditure budget have been clarified. Negotiations have begun with the companies that made allocation requests through a pre-allocation protocol."

"OUR CONDOLENCES"

ATSO Chairman of the Board Ali Bahar said, "Unfortunately, the fire of martyrdom has fallen into our hearts in Turkey. I wish God's mercy upon our soldiers who were martyred in the clash with terrorists trying to infiltrate the base area during the Claw-Lock Operation, and I extend my condolences to their families and our entire nation. I curse the terrorist murderers. I sincerely believe that the fight against terrorism will reach success with a unity that transcends politics."

"THIS IS A SIGN OF YOUR TRUST IN US"

The 2024 budget of ATSO was also discussed at the ATSO December Assembly Meeting. The budget, set at 354 million 501 thousand liras, was accepted unanimously. Thanking those who contributed to the creation of the budget, President Bahar said, "May our 2024 budget be beneficial to us all. As the management, we are experiencing the pleasure of it passing unanimously; this is a sign of your trust in us."

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THE MINIMUM WAGE

Noting that the issue of minimum wage should be analyzed under 3 headings, ATSO President Ali Bahar continued his speech as follows:

“Determining the minimum wage is an important process for Turkey, not just today, but always. However, in recent years, it has gained more critical importance due to escalating inflation and the high cost of living. Not long ago, exactly two years ago, on January 1, 2022, the net minimum wage was increased from 2 thousand 825 liras to 5 thousand 500 liras. Today, we are talking about 15-16 thousand liras. Secondly, the prevalence of the minimum wage, meaning the number of those receiving the minimum wage or wages close to it, is very high. There are nearly 32 million employees in the public and private sectors in Turkey. Nearly half of them earn either the minimum wage or slightly above it. In other words, the wage we call minimum is actually the wage that half of the country receives. In my opinion, the biggest problem regarding the minimum wage in our country is not what the wage will be, but the picture of the prevalence of the minimum wage. The third is that those who are not minimum wage earners do not receive much higher wages than this either.”

“STEPS TOWARD IMPROVEMENT SHOULD BE TAKEN REGARDING THE MINIMUM WAGE”

Stating that as a country, steps should be taken toward improvement rather than focusing on what the minimum wage will be, President Bahar said, "As you know, the biggest problem in our economy is inflation, and our economic management is focused on this problem. We are receiving positive signals in inflation in the last few months, both with interest rate hikes and macroprudential tools. The continuation of this should be everyone's top priority. Only when we are successful in the fight against inflation can we talk about real growth and development. With the new minimum wage, there will be price increases in almost every type of good and service in January."

“WE SUPPORT A ONCE-A-YEAR INCREASE”

Emphasizing that the last two of the three main veins feeding inflation regarding the minimum wage increase—wage increase, exchange rate increase, and real demand increase—are partially under control, Bahar said, "For this reason, in the coming months, a strong impact on inflation will come only from the wages channel. It has been announced previously that there will be no interim raise this year. Therefore, we will see a rapid decline in inflation starting from July 2024. In this respect, we support a once-a-year increase in the minimum wage. Of course, there is also the global competition dimension of the business. Now, if a 40 percent raise comes to the minimum wage, the cost to the employer will approach 800 dollars in dollar terms; this will be the highest dollar-based cost I have personally seen so far. The foreign trade of our sectors such as textiles, ready-to-wear, and furniture will be negatively affected by this in both export and import dimensions. Unfortunately, the minimum wage level may also increase informality in these sectors."

“THE TRAFFIC PROBLEM AFFECTS EMPLOYMENT”

Noting that the number of vehicles in Antalya is increasing much faster than the Turkey average, ATSO President Ali Bahar said, "In the meeting we held with OSİAD, the fact that there are serious declines in female employment in the Antalya OSB due to the traffic that is intensifying day by day, the loss of efficiency experienced both at the start and end of shifts, and the disappearance of humane living conditions due to traffic were among the most important, striking, and noteworthy topics discussed. The number of vehicles in Antalya is increasing much faster than the Turkey average. The number of vehicles in Antalya, which was 500 thousand in 2005, exceeded 1 million in 2017. Today, there are 1.4 million vehicles registered in Antalya."

“SOLVING THE TRAFFIC PROBLEM IS OUR BIGGEST EXPECTATION FROM THE MUNICIPALITY”

Stating that one out of every 20 vehicles in Turkey is in Antalya, President Bahar said, "When we consider our roads and parking lots, this is a very high rate. After Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, it is the city with the most vehicles in Turkey. While there are 332 vehicles per 1000 people across Turkey, this rate is 532 in Antalya. When we proportion it to the population, we are the province with the highest vehicle density after Muğla and Burdur. In addition to natural population growth, Antalya receives 30-40 thousand people in migration from home and abroad every year." Pointing out that the demand for vehicles is rising due to the increasing number of tourists, Bahar said, "However, in order to protect the livability of this beautiful city and to prevent air pollution, the traffic problem needs to be solved. I think this should be our biggest expectation from the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality after the upcoming municipal elections are completed."

“INDUSTRY-FOCUSED GROWTH IS GRATIFYING”

Pointing to the 5.9 percent annual growth of the Turkish economy in the third quarter, President Ali Bahar said, "Thus, our growth rate reached the highest level of the last five quarters. When we look sectorally, we see that the agricultural sector grew by 0.3 percent, the industrial sector by 5.7 percent, the construction sector by 8.1 percent, and the services sector by 4.3 percent. The growth rates excluding agriculture are quite gratifying. The fact that the industrial sector has returned to growth after four quarters of contraction is a positive indicator." Pointing out that the services sector achieved its slowest growth of the last 11 quarters, Bahar said, "Another positive sign in terms of the ideal of production-based growth. For the first time in 3 years, the industrial sector showed a higher growth rate performance than services. If you notice, industry-focused growth, which we have pointed out in the past, is an indicator of healthy growth."

“A SIGN OF TRUST IN ECONOMIC POLICIES”

Touching on the Central Bank's policy rate, President Bahar said, "As we all expected, it raised it to 42.5 percent and clearly stated that we are approaching the end of interest rate hikes. Most likely, the increase process will be completed with 45 percent next month. From now on, we expect the tightening in monetary policy to continue with non-interest instruments. One of the indicators we follow regarding the Central Bank is foreign exchange reserves. There is a visible increase in our gross reserves; this is a sign of trust in economic policies. However, we cannot fully see this improvement in our net foreign exchange reserves, excluding swaps. There are indications in the market that the Central Bank conducts swap transactions in exchange for foreign currency while giving TL to commercial banks, and that gross reserves are increased in this way."

“COMPANIES ARE UNDER A FINANCIAL BURDEN”

Drawing attention to the 'Omnibus Law' being discussed in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Bahar pointed out that with the regulation to be implemented, a responsibility is imposed on companies due to VAT both withheld by them and withheld from them. Bahar said, "However, there is a situation here where term sales are ignored. If our concerns are correct, a situation arises where the withheld portion of the VAT amount in term sales is collected without waiting for 90 days. As companies are under a heavy financial burden, they are responsible for both the VAT withheld by them and the VAT withheld from them. We expect this mistake to be corrected as soon as possible. Unfortunately, a great injustice will occur here. In a position where finance is so expensive and difficult to find, carrying such a burden is a very difficult burden."

“EVERY PROBLEM WE BRING TO THE AGENDA IS BEING RESOLVED”

Pointing out that many problems they brought to the agenda as ATSO have been resolved, President Ali Bahar said, "Finally, our request regarding the increase of the minimum capital for the obligation to have a lawyer in joint-stock companies found a response. The obligation to have a lawyer, which was brought for companies with a minimum capital of over 250 thousand TL, was regulated as 1 million 250 thousand TL and above as of January 1, 2024. A new revision also came from the BRSA last week. The limit in the account status document received from customers for cash and non-cash loans to be provided by banks was increased from 2 million liras to 5 million liras. In other words, our companies will now submit the account status document to banks for loans over 5 million liras. This was also a topic we emphasized importantly."

“IT IS TIME TO MEET ON THE MAXIMUM COMMON GROUND, NOT TO DIVIDE”

Stating that Antalya has received high migration as the fastest-growing province of Turkey in the last two years, Bahar continued his words as follows:

“In other words, the bread is growing, but the number of those sharing the bread is increasing just as much. This can bring about ordinariness, or mediocrity so to speak, after a while; we must take measures against this, and it is not enough, we must develop permanent, long-term, visionary projects. Look, there is one Antalya and we all feed from this land. As ATSO members, each of us may have different perspectives, but all these views carry the purpose of contributing to the development of our business world. It is time to meet on the maximum common ground, not to divide on the minimum common ground. All the magic is in this intention, in this sentence.”

“WE WILL START TO SEE IMPROVEMENTS IN 2024”

ATSO President Ali Bahar said, "Friends, we are completing the year that we started badly as a country at a better point than we started. As Antalya, we had a better period than our other provinces in many respects. Leading data show that the normalization process in our economy continues. This time next year, we will have passed the difficult part in inflation. Hopefully, it will be a good year again in terms of tourism. A better period than 2023 awaits us for exports. We will start to see these improvements in the second half of 2024. I sincerely wish that 2024 brings goodness and abundance to our country, our nation, Antalya, our fellow citizens, our members, you, our esteemed Assembly, and our families."

Baran stated that despite the negativities in the global economy, the process in Turkey is managed well.

Reporting that value-added tax (VAT) is applied at different rates in sectors and that there is a difference between the entry and exit of the same product to the business, Baran made a proposal regarding the application of a single-rate VAT.

Pointing out that trade is carried out with commercial credit cards, Baran requested that the number of installments applied to commercial credit cards be increased.

"LIMITS SHOULD BE REMOVED ON TAX PAYMENTS WITH CREDIT CARDS"

Reminding that as a result of their demands regarding tax payment with credit cards, the Revenue Administration provided this opportunity with a certain limit. Bringing up the demand that banks should not charge commissions from Social Security Institution (SGK) premium payments made with credit cards, Baran evaluated, "Removing the limit on tax payments with credit cards and not charging commissions on SGK payments will also contribute to the increase in collections."

Wanting businesses that are registered to the chamber of commerce and pay taxes in a simple procedure to benefit from the loan support provided by public banks, Baran said, "Of the two businesses doing the same job side by side, one is treated differently because one is a tradesman and the other is a merchant. Our members should also be provided to benefit from the supports provided to tradesmen."

News Source: 12punto