'Closure' penalty on the way: Signal for regulation on 'exorbitant prices' from Minister Bolat

Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat said that they are working on new regulations regarding exorbitant pricing practices.

According to the report in Cumhuriyet; responding to the criticisms and questions of members of parliament at the TBMM Planning and Budget Committee, Ömer Bolat said the following on this issue:

“It is not possible to determine prices by command or by placing a commando or special operations officer at the head of every business, tradesman, or company.”

Bolat stated that they are in the process of new preparations, that penalties will be significantly increased, and that they will even propose a temporary closure penalty.

When CHP deputy Fethi Gürer requested that the powers of municipal police be increased, Bolat stated that they are open to all kinds of suggestions.

Sharing statistics on companies that opened and closed with the deputies, Bolat provided the following information: 

• In the five years from 2019 to 2023, 1 million 479 thousand 921 tradesman businesses were opened. In contrast, 550 thousand 780 businesses closed. 
• Last year, 333 thousand tradesman businesses were opened. 125 thousand 600 businesses closed. In the first 10 months of this year, 255 thousand 197 businesses were opened while 109 thousand businesses closed.  
• In the 11 provinces affected by the earthquake, 36 thousand 217 new tradesmen began service. 9 thousand 966 tradesman businesses closed. 
• In the first nine months of this year, 12 thousand 169 of the 12 million 516 thousand 977 checks presented to banks were dishonored. 

Bolat expressed the reasons for closure as follows: “One would wish that no company or tradesman would close, but these things can happen for various reasons. Sometimes it can occur due to sectoral, sometimes personal, sometimes macroeconomic, or micro-economic reasons related to the business itself.”