ATO President Gürsel Baran: Illegal trade reduces public revenue

Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, in his speech at the opening of the Conference on Combating Illegal Trade held at the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), reported that Turkey has 154 active customs gates and that 623 billion dollars worth of goods trade is conducted through these customs.

Expressing that they aim to accelerate trade and bring more foreign currency into the country, Bolat stated, "We aim to prevent illegal trade that will harm our country, to ban the trade of dangerous substances that are harmful to health and the public, and to protect the youth and the health of society."

Bolat pointed out that according to United Nations data, the amount of money laundered through trade at the global level corresponds to 2.5 percent of trade, and continued his words as follows:

"Global merchandise exports are 25 trillion dollars. The figure laundered through trade is one trillion dollars. One trillion dollars of money consists of illegal trade money laundered through trade. We must sadly say that the narcotics industry has also reached an annual volume of 300 billion dollars. One of the duties of customs administrations is to try to conduct legal trade in a way that industrialists, exporters, and importers do not suffer losses. Efforts are being carried out with determination to prevent drug trafficking."

Reporting that 4.7 billion liras worth of drugs were seized in operations carried out by teams in the 11-month period of this year, Bolat said that 17 billion 200 million liras worth of smuggled commercial goods were also confiscated and that the amount of drugs seized was 11 tons.

Emphasizing that they will continue the fight against poison dealers with the operations they carry out, Bolat said, "We are improving the technical and human capacity of our teams, we are investing, we are buying devices, we are moving to the digital field. We are modernizing our intelligence techniques, we are increasing the number of our teams. As a fruit of our investments, a 94 percent increase in seizures was achieved compared to the 11 months of 2022. Many smuggling attempts were also thwarted."

Bolat stated that they have started to use domestically developed x-ray device systems and that the first domestic vehicle and container scanning system has been put into operation.

"We catch them with the post-control mechanism"

Stating that they also closely follow transit transport and e-commerce activities, Bolat made the following assessment:

"Considering the increasing volume of e-commerce, we are constantly improving our technological infrastructure. With the analyses or reports made, we can detect products that have passed through customs at their destinations with the 'post-control' mechanism, and by performing their checks, we can make the necessary seizures. In the 11 months of 2023, nearly 3 billion liras of customs duties and fines were accrued through post-control and secondary control works. Thus, the loss of revenue for our state and our economy was prevented. Our goal is to create a fair, stable, and competitive trade environment and to protect the rights of the manufacturer, farmer, industrialist, and exporter who does their job honestly, works, and pays their taxes."

Pointing to the unregistered commercial transactions attempted to be made in the internet environment, Bolat said, "With the regulations we have introduced, we are trying to prevent these as well, to make them registered, and to make it possible for them to enter a fair competition environment and pay taxes."

Emphasizing that customs administrations have an important function in terms of combating informal trade and preventing unfair trade, Bolat said that 30 percent of tax revenues in Turkey are collected from customs.

Bolat stated that 22 billion liras worth of products subject to illegal trade were seized at customs in 2023 and noted the following:

"We seized 1,375 tons of fuel, 4 million 743 thousand electronic goods, 1 million 130 thousand packs of cigarettes, 389 million macarons, 47 million cigarette papers and filters, 1 million 165 thousand electronic cigarettes and components, 4,700 tons of food, and 3,924 historical artifacts. 4.7 billion liras worth of drugs are also among the seizures. As a Ministry, we will continue to work with all our means in the fight against all types of illegal trade and smuggling, and we will perform our duty with determination. In order to protect the security of our country, fair trade in the economy, the health and welfare of our people, economic stability, and the rights of honest traders, our fight against commercial smuggling will continue without slowing down. We will never allow drug trafficking, which poisons the health of our youth and our society."

"Illegal trade reduces public revenue"

ATO President Gürsel Baran also emphasized that illegal trade contains dangers and threats that cross borders, creates a restrictive effect on economic activities, and harms growth by causing losses in tax revenues, saying, "It also affects the quality of public services and tax rates. One of the best methods in the fight against illegal and informal economy is to ensure the transition to the formal economy effectively. The transition from traditional methods to digitalization has contributed to the strengthening of the formal economy."

Baran stated that Turkey has also demonstrated its determination in the fight against the informal economy with the "Action Plan for Combating Informal Economy" prepared by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance.

Pointing out the importance of ensuring social awareness for the success of the fight against the informal economy, Baran said, "For this fight, it is necessary to improve data sharing, take legal and administrative measures, and increase audit capacity. The proper implementation of all these is only possible with the cooperation of all institutions and organizations."