We are entering the election with a compensatory budget.
The electoral process, which has accelerated in recent months with decisions such as the retirees of legal age (EYT), the increase in the minimum wage, was finalized with the date of May 14, 2023, which President Tayyip Erdoğan pointed out in the group meeting yesterday. As Turkey closes 2022 with a controversial and unprecedented additional budget in the history of the Republic, in this process that is rapidly moving towards elections, economist Mahfi Eğilmez pointed out that the cost of deferred debts and low deficits will come. to the table in 2023. Mahfi Eğilmez, who published an article titled “A Bird’s-Eye Analysis of the 2022 Budget” on his personal blog, stressed that Turkey preferred to enter the elections with a compensating budget deficit.
Mahfi Eğilmez declared that the pre-election budget deficit was postponed.
BOTAŞ EFFECT ON THE BUDGET
In his article, Eğilmez claimed that the capital expenditures and loan amounts in the 2022 budget were much lower than they should have been, and this was due to BOTAŞ’s debt deferral of $20 billion with Russia by Russia. “The amount that this amount should arrive in 2022 is estimated at approximately 250 billion lira. The budget deficit appears to be 139 billion lire. However, if we add the 250 billion lira that BOTAŞ must pay in 2022, the real deficit reaches 400 billion lira. By postponing the debt, Turkey is actually postponing the deficit and opting to run in the elections with a compensating budget deficit.” Eğilmez stressed that this postponed amount creates a serious problem for the 2023 budget. Eğilmez also stated that the budget is no longer a document where everything can be seen at a glance, as it used to be.
Currency protection charges are not shown as interest.
Pointing out that 92.5 billion liras were paid to banks under the name of Currency Protected Deposits in 2022, Mahfi Eğilmez pointed out that this payment was shown as a non-interest expense in the budget when it should have been classified as an interest payment. “If we add this to the required item, i.e. interest payments, the interest expense increases to TL 403.4 billion. In this case, interest expenses increase by 123 percent, not 71.9 percent compared to 2021,” Eğilmez said, adding that now it is necessary to check if there is something hidden in each budget item.