Are Minister Şimşek’s words a signal of new taxes? Prof. Dr. Serap Durusoy evaluates for 12punto…

Making statements at the TBMM Planning and Budget Committee, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said, “The perception that the tax burden is high does not reflect the truth.”

Commenting on Minister Şimşek’s words to 12punto columnist Şenol Çarık, economist Prof. Dr. Serap Durusoy stated, “This serves as a signal. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of preparing citizens to pay high taxes.”

Recalling Minister Şimşek’s remarks in his presentation to the committee that “We foresee a decline in inflation in the second half of next year under supportive global conditions,” Durusoy asked, “Mr. Şimşek, how will this happen when global conditions are so complex?”

Stating that very bright days are not expected in the economy in the coming period, Prof. Durusoy said, “Every segment of society is paying the price resulting from the wrong economic policies of the recent past. Employers are dissatisfied, workers are dissatisfied, the youth are dissatisfied, and industrialists are dissatisfied.”

Evaluating Mehmet Şimşek’s words that “The perception that the tax burden is high does not reflect the truth,” Durusoy said, “This speech serves as a signal. I think it is a sentence intended to prepare citizens for the possibility that new taxes or tax increases may come in the coming period.”

Durusoy continued as follows:

“The economic policy currently being implemented is an incomplete policy. In other words, we are facing an economic management that is walking on one leg and where the entire responsibility for inflation is loaded onto the Central Bank. Therefore, it is a style where fiscal policy does not accompany monetary policy and where structural reforms cannot be implemented…

By strengthening expectations that we will face higher taxes in the coming months, it will lead to the pulling forward of consumption, and this will be a factor that triggers inflation even further. We observe that what the economic management is trying to do is to suppress demand through private consumption and that the demand of fixed-income earners is being suppressed.”