13.12.2022 ANKARA
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating that a radical and structural reform is needed in the tax system, said, “Our goal should be both to implement lower tax rates and to design the tax system in a simple and understandable way.”
The “Conference on the
Importance of Combating Illegal Trade” organized by TOBB was held at TOBB Twin
Towers with the participation of Trade Minister Mehmet Muş.
In his speech at the
opening, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the fight against the illegal economy is
the focal point of development and that effective cooperation of public
institutions, the business world and academics is necessary because it concerns
the whole society.
Hisarcıklıoğlu
emphasized that they will talk with the representatives of the fuel, beverage, tobacco,
electronic device sectors and academicians who are among them today about what
needs to be done in the fight against illegal trade, “These sectors have an
important share in the development of our country with their employment,
exports, public income and high value-added production powers. For this reason,
we started our first conference with these sectors. In the meetings we have
planned as a conference series with our Ministry, we will continue to discuss
separate product groups.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu,
pointing out that illegal trade is a comprehensive problem, listed the reasons
for this as follows: “First of all, it is smuggling, trademark-patent
violation, tax evasion. It disrupts countries, public finances and fair
competition. It also poses a threat to public health and public safety. It also
creates an unfair competition environment in terms of sectors and traders who
continue their activities on a legal basis. It is also a threat to labor peace.
It disturbs the peace and trust among the employees. In tax revenues, it causes
significant losses.”
- “Tax revenue loss from 4 sectors has exceeded 50 billion
TL”
Stating that the loss
of income due to illegal trade is more than estimated, Hisarcıklıoğlu reported
that the loss of tax revenue due to 4 sectors here alone exceeded 50 billion
TL.
Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating
that this corresponds to almost 1 in 4 of the 2021 SCT revenues, said, “In
other words, illegal trade causes a very significant loss in public revenues.
The most important element for our business world is to be able to compete
under the same conditions. However, companies that remain unregistered
significantly reduce the competitiveness of our companies conduct business
honestly.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
underlined that it is not possible for anyone to accept such an unfair
competition environment, and said that Türkiye, under the leadership of
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has made significant progress in the transition
to the formal economy.
Hisarcıklıoğlu also
drew attention to the measures taken recently by Trade Minister Mehmet Muş and
said that the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and law enforcement agencies are in an
all-out struggle.
Pointing out that the
transition from traditional methods to digital has accelerated in this process,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Concepts such as e-invoice, e-waybill, e-expense compass
have been implemented, export declarations have been moved to the digital
environment, stock monitoring has been made instant with EMRA automation
systems, and e-document applications have been integrated with the State
Registration System.”
- “There are limits, thresholds, rates in tax that should
not be exceeded”
Hisarcıklıoğlu,
emphasizing that many other activities continue successfully, stated that the
fight against illegal trade is a continuous issue.
Stating that since the
world is changing very fast, they need to constantly monitor the process and
improve themselves, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that digitalized processes increase
productivity on the one hand and lead informal companies to develop different
methods on the other hand.
Hisarcıklıoğlu,
pointing out that for this reason, legislative regulations should be combined
with technological developments, continued as follows: “We should create an
infrastructure for monitoring and effective management of data with the
contribution of all our institutions. We must maintain inspections resolutely
and strictly. This is where cross-agency data and information sharing comes to the
fore. On the other hand, we cannot ignore that every tax increase increases off
the record economy. I studied economics, and the first thing we learned there
was that 'too much tax kills tax'. In other words, there are limits,
thresholds, rates that should not be exceeded in tax. If they are exceeded, we
run the risk of collecting less when we say 'let me collect more taxes'.
Therefore, our aim should be both to implement lower tax rates and to design
the tax system in a simple and understandable way. Measures should be taken to
expand the tax base. From this point of view, there is a need for a fundamental
and structural reform of the tax system.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
emphasized that as TOBB, they provide all kinds of support to public
institutions in terms of contributing to legislative regulations and raising
awareness, and said that they have given a very comprehensive and detailed
opinion to the “Action Plan to Combat the Informal Economy” to be announced by
the Ministry of Treasury and Finance.
Hisarcıklıoğlu,
reminding that they provided “Anti-Smuggling in Export Training” with the
Ministry of Trade, chambers and commodity exchanges last year, said, “In some
assemblies within our Sector Councils, we are also working on the issue in
terms of legislation by establishing sub-commissions on smuggling. We convey to
our public institutions all our suggestions that can prevent smuggling and
illegal trade. Hopefully, with the cooperation and solidarity of all
institutions, we will be in a much better position in the fight against illegal
trade.”
- Minister Muş
Trade Minister Mehmet
Muş said that they continue to work without slowing down and meticulously in
all areas and throughout the country to prevent illegal trade.
Stating that the
Ministry has sanctioned the technical infrastructure, human capital and
administrative capacity over 1 billion liras in the last 10 years with the
awareness that the fight against smuggling is based on strong technical, human
and administrative capacity, Muş said, “As a result of these efforts, I would
like to express with pleasure that as a result of the anti-smuggling activities
carried out by our Customs Protection teams, we have seized a total of 10.7
billion liras worth of contraband goods as of December 2022.”
Muş said that fuel smuggling
is an extremely important problem in terms of Türkiye's economy and security,
human and environmental health, and that issuing and using fake invoices has
been one of the most frequently subject areas of financial irregularity in the
country in the past.
Minister Muş pointed
out that tobacco and tobacco products are another sector that causes serious
tax losses and unfair competition and that they are resolutely focusing on, and
made the following assessment: “The new irregularities detected recently have
made an effective audit mechanism essential in this field. Accordingly, we have
implemented the Tobacco Special Team in coordination with the relevant
ministries. The Tobacco Special Team caught 24 million pounds worth of products
such as macaroons and cigarette filters. In addition, the General Directorate
of Customs Enforcement of our Ministry seized 205 million liras worth of
tobacco and tobacco products in 2022.”
Minister of Trade Muş
pointed out that the irregularities in electronic products also disrupted the
market operation and said, “In this context, within the scope of the fight
carried out by our Ministry in the field of electrical and electronics
smuggling, we have realized 5.3 million seizures worth 738 million liras in
2020-2022. In 2022, 1 million products worth 332 million liras were captured.”
Emphasizing that in the
last three years, among the types of electrical and electronic goods, mobile
phone type goods stand out in terms of the number of incidents (51 percent) and
the capture value (37 percent), Muş said that the Retention Integration System
established within the scope of the technical work carried out by the Ministry
and the Information Technologies and Communication Authority in order to
prevent irregularities in bringing mobile phones to the country other than the
declaration of passengers within the scope of the fight against mobile phone
smuggling, He stated that it entered
into force as of November 1 and started to be used at customs gates.
Muş reported that in
coordination with the Ministry, in cooperation with the Information and
Communication Technologies Authority and mobile phone operators, measures such
as the deactivation of IMEI of mobile phones by BTK when necessary were put
into provision in order to narrow the cloning IMEI pool. Muş informed that they
will implement service-based clone analysis as of the new year in order to
detect cloned mobile phones, and said that they will make it difficult to clone
while protecting IMEI numbers.
Stating that they will
facilitate legal trade in the fight against smuggling while facilitating
illegal trade, Muş said that they will continue the coordination between all
institutions for the effective fight against smuggling.