97 percent discount for bosses from President Erdoğan: Incentive certificates will remain secret

AKP Chairman and President Erdoğan has signed an amendment to the "Decision on Providing Project-Based State Aid to Investments," which was put into effect by a Council of Ministers decision in 2016.

Incentive certificates will be issued by Presidential decree. Incentive certificates, which were previously announced via publication in the Official Gazette, will now be kept secret.

REDUCED FROM 100 MILLION DOLLARS TO 100 MILLION LIRA

According to the report by Uğur Zengin from Evrensel, under the decision published in 2016, a company was required to have a minimum fixed investment of 100 million US dollars to be considered for incentives under the "technology-oriented industrial move program." According to the decision published by Erdoğan on November 10, this amount has been reduced to 100 million Turkish Lira.

HERE ARE THE PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO COMPANIES

Companies that are evaluated and receive incentive approval are granted the following privileges: Customs duty exemption, VAT exemption, VAT refund, tax reduction or exemption, employer's share of social security premium support, income tax withholding support, qualified personnel support, interest support or grant support, and capital contribution.

INCENTIVE CERTIFICATE CONDITIONS HAVE CHANGED

While the minimum limit for incentives was lowered, the requirement to publish incentive certificates in the Official Gazette was abolished. Furthermore, the decision for an incentive certificate will now be made by President Erdoğan. The article of the decision stating, "A Support Decision is published for projects decided to be supported by the Council of Ministers," was changed by Erdoğan to, "A support decision is taken for projects deemed appropriate to be supported by the President, and an investment incentive certificate is issued by the Ministry."

"WE ARE PROVIDING EVERY KIND OF INCENTIVE"

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek stated at a TÜSİAD meeting, "The essence of our program is industrial transformation. Whatever the agenda of the most competitive economies of the era is, our agenda is not a bit different from that.

For a long time, it was said that 'there is no program' and 'the source is temporary'.

Once the resource issue was resolved, time was spent on other stories. We have no time to waste on these rumors. We are providing you with every kind of incentive; if there are better incentives in the world, bring them and put them in front of us," he said.

AT LEAST 30 BILLION DOLLARS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED

A total support budget of 30 billion dollars has been determined within the scope of the HIT-30 program, which was announced in its main outlines by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 24. The support will be provided within the scope of the project-based incentive system currently in effect.

THE FIRST COMPANY TO HAVE ITS INCENTIVE DOCUMENT HIDDEN WAS THE CHINESE BYD

The amount of incentives given to the Chinese-capital automotive monopoly BYD, which was announced to invest 1 billion dollars in Turkey, has been kept secret. No information was provided regarding the amount of support to be given from the state treasury for the investment that BYD will make.

Although the publication of the incentive certificate to be granted to the Chinese company BYD had been awaited for a long time, the "Decision on Amending the Decision on Granting Project-Based State Aid to Investments," published with Erdoğan's signature, eliminated the requirement to publish incentive certificates.

BYD, which had previously announced it would hold its Turkey launch on November 5, had postponed the event to November 15. Erdoğan's decision was published on November 10. Following this, BYD held its Turkey launch yesterday.

The company, which plans to deliver 6,000 vehicles in Turkey by the end of the year, also announced the prices of the cars it will offer for sale in Turkey. The company, which sells cars in the 10,000-dollar range globally, had its Turkey prices (including taxes) found to be expensive by consumers.

BYD's prices in Turkey are as follows:

Dolphin: 1,280,000 TL, BYD Atto 3: 1,490,000 TL, BYD Seal U EV: 1,790,000 TL, BYD Seal U DM-i: 1,850,000 TL.