Claim: Is the international departure fee being increased?
Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek announced yesterday that the transaction tax had been abandoned. However, it is stated that a significant revenue-generating component of the tax package that will come to the agenda of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) after the holiday will be an increase in the international departure fee. According to the claim, the Ministry of Finance has begun work to reset the international departure fee, which is currently 150 Turkish Lira, to between 1,000 and 1,750 Turkish Lira.
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Minister Mehmet Şimşek announced yesterday that the transaction tax had been abandoned. According to the claim, while the transaction tax on the stock market was being abandoned, preparations for an extraordinary hike in international departure fees were initiated. One of the important revenue-generating components of the tax package that will come to the agenda of the TBMM after the holiday will be the increase in the international departure fee.
AN INCREASE BETWEEN 566 PERCENT AND 1066 PERCENT IS EXPECTED
Accordingly, it is anticipated that the international departure fee, which is currently 150 Turkish Lira, will be reset to a range between 1,000 and 1,750 Turkish Lira. If the fee is set at 1,000 Turkish Lira, the increase rate will be 566 percent; if it is set at 1,750 Turkish Lira, it will be 1,066 percent.
According to the report by Canan Sakarya from Ekonomim, it has been learned that the decision to increase the fee was made following assessments that the international departure fee, which was raised from 50 Turkish Lira to 150 Turkish Lira in March 2022, had remained very low over time.
HOW MUCH FEE WAS COLLECTED LAST YEAR?
In 2023, 1 billion 311 million Turkish Lira was collected from international departure fees. In the January-April period of 2024, 427 million Turkish Lira in revenue was generated. A portion of the international departure fees is transferred to TOKİ.
The international departure fee, which was 15 Turkish Lira in 2018, was increased to 50 Turkish Lira in July 2019. In March 2022, it became 150 Turkish Lira.
Those who document that they have a residence permit abroad as of the date of departure, those who are crew members on land, sea, air, and railway vehicles used for commercial cargo and passenger transport at the time of departure, and those who have not completed the age of 7 are exempt from the fee.