17 AUGUST 1999

On the tenth anniversary of the Marmara earthquake, the Istanbul Chamber of Accountants and Chartered Accountants (ISMMMO) has said that the state has collected 24.1 billion lira (around 11.37 billion Euros) in "earthquake taxes" but cannot account for them in a satisfactory manner.

The chamber has prepared a report entitled "Earthquake Taxes Study", based on data from the Ministry of Finance, the State Planning Agency (DPT), the Turkish Industrialists and Businesspeople's Association (TÜSİAD) and the World Bank.

An additional law No. 4481 introduced additional income and corporation taxes, real estate, vehicle, private communication and private transaction taxes.

The law was abolished in 2003, but the private communication tax was incorporated into the law on expenditure taxes and became permanent. It has affected around 65 million telephone users and has cost them 22.3 billion lira

Around 1.8 billion lira were raised with the private transaction tax, abolished in 2004.

The ISMMMO cites the national and international institutions as evaluating the economic cost of the earthquake as between 17 and 24 billion lira and estimates that the state will have collected 27.2 bilion lira by the end of this year.

However, the chamber points out that the damages of the earthquake have not been dealt with properly:

Yahya Arıkan, president of the ISMMMO, said, "The pain in the earthquake are has not been soothed, and neither have the buildings that needed to be strengthened after the quake all been worked on."

He added that people were not questioning where the taxes had been used:

"Statements by various bureaucrats and specialists reveal that most projects are being financed with credit from abroad. That means that the funds collected from the earthquake tax have not reached their target."

The chamber thus accused the state of still owing the victims of the earthquake, ten years after it happened. (bia/AG)