Debate on the gray list in the Turkish Grand National Assembly
In the Planning and Budget Commission of the GNAT, a debate was held on the ‘Gray List’, where the 2024 budget of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance was discussed. Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek stated that the fight against financial crimes is among his top priorities and said: “We are making efforts to remove our country from the gray list.” CHP MP Veli Ağbaba asked Şimşek: “Mr. Minister, who put our country on the gray list? Was it the CHP?” he replied he. While Ağbaba’s statement caused laughter in the room, Minister Şimşek welcomed these words with a smile.
Mehmet Şimşek, who presented his ministry’s 2024 budget to the commission, said the fight against financial crimes is among his top priorities. Noting that a healthy financial system is of vital importance for economic growth and development, Şimşek said: “For this reason, we intensively continue our efforts to strengthen the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime. According to the report shared by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), our country is compatible with 39 of the 40 FATF standards. In the area of technical harmonization, the only issue still in preparation is work related to ‘cryptoassets’. Our necessary work in this regard has reached the final stage. In this state, Türkiye has become one of the most successful countries in technical harmonization. We are determined to continue and increase our work in this context. “We are making efforts to remove our country from the gray list with the effectiveness that we will provide in practice,” he said.
NAS MCRED YOU!
After these words, CHP’s Ağbaba asked Şimşek: “Mr. Minister, who put our country on the gray list? Did they put the mentality of CEHAPE (CHP)?” Nas must have corrupted you! he replied. As laughter was heard in the room at these words, Minister Şimşek stopped his speech for a moment, waited with a smile, and then continued his speech with a smile.
ANNOUNCED THE INCREASE IN TAXES WITHOUT INCREASE
Minister Şimşek said that they will increase the tax revenue they will collect from the public by 73.5 percent next year, reaching 7 trillion 408 billion lira. Şimşek made a statement about how the huge increase in revenue will be achieved, not to mention the tax increases that will fall on the people starting at the beginning of the year. Şimşek said: “We anticipate these increases in revenue; “The nominal growth of 61.5 percent can be explained by the full-year effect of the measures we took in July and the effectiveness in tax auditing and collection,” he said.
CONFESSION THAT OUR TAX BURDEN WILL INCREASE
Şimşek stated that they expect the share of tax revenue in the budget to increase from 84 percent in 2022 to 87.8 percent in 2024, and the ratio of tax revenue to national income to increase from 15.7 percent to 18 percent. percent, and gave the message that The people’s tax burden will increase even more.
WE DO NOT SUFFER INFLATION
Minister Şimşek said that they have not subjected employees and pensioners to inflation and will not do so in the future. Stating that they have given increases above inflation to employees and retirees, Şimşek stated that they have not made inflation suffer by increasing the minimum wage by 107.3 percent this year, and that they will not do so in the future .