Fatih Altaylı's harsh reaction to the 'foreign travel exit fee': 'If it weren't for the tributes we pay, how would this reputation be maintained...'
Addressing reports that the 150 lira foreign travel exit fee will be increased to 3 thousand lira, journalist Fatih Altaylı recalled that the exit fee was introduced during the 2001 crisis and remarked, "This means that even during the 2001 crisis, our economy was in better shape and was being managed better."
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The proposal by the Revenue Administration under the Ministry of Treasury and Finance to increase the foreign travel exit fee from 150 TL to 3 thousand TL and to adjust the fee annually according to the revaluation rate has sparked public debate.
Journalist Fatih Altaylı, who addressed this exorbitant increase in his column, emphasized that this is a travel restriction, stating, "While we wanted to discuss whether the passport fee restricts 'Constitutional freedoms,' now this absurdity is also on the agenda."
CALL TO THE OPPOSITION
Stating that Turkey has the highest passport fees in the world and that travelers also have to pay visa fees, Altaylı called on the opposition to take the issue of the 'foreign travel exit fee' to the Constitutional Court.
Reminding that the foreign travel exit fee was introduced during the 2001 crisis, Altaylı included the following statements in his article:
"Of course, this demand for a terrible increase in taxes is also an admission of the government's helplessness and the dire situation it has brought the country to. Because this tax was introduced in 2001, when the country's economy was in its worst state. And at that time, it was applied as 50 US dollars. This means that today our economic situation is even worse than in 2001, and we must be in greater need of this money, as they want to increase it to 100 dollars. And it means that even during the 2001 crisis, our economy was in better shape and was being managed better.
Well, of course, we are not in a position to compare Ecevit with Erdoğan. Naturally, there is a need for more money today. Ecevit did not have Boeing 747, A340, or A330 official aircraft that cost millions of dollars just to take off, nor did he have fleets of Mercedes. If it weren't for the tributes we pay, how would this 'reputation' be maintained!"