The Tax Peace, which the government launched on grounds of opening a new page for the tax payments, was ended with a record-breaking application. Two million people applied to benefit from the law, which the Finance Ministry brought into force for the tax amnesty and provided paying the tax debt in installments. The amount of the application was over 6.5 quadrillion TL. Istanbul set a record with approximately 4 quadrillion TL; Ankara and Izmir followed Istanbul.
While the government aimed at a revenue of 2.4 quadrillion TL from the Tax Peace Law, IMF aimed at 750 trillion TL, which caused discussion between the two. The 2003 Budget was prepared under the insistence of IMF and the revenue of 750 trillion were took into consideration instead of 2.4 quadrillion TL to fulfill the non-interest surplus.
The people, who applied for the tax peace law, which began on February 27 and was lengthened to April 21, expected the prolonging of the law but Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan announced that the application period ended. Unakitan thanked to the taxpayers and stressed that, benefiting from the law was related to paying the installments in time.
The revenue, which will be received from the tax peace, is important for the government to fulfill the non-interest surplus of 6.5% in the 2003 Budget. Finance Ministry aims at following the tax inspection carefully after the Tax Peace.
(22.04.2003)