ANKARA - Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan said on Thursday that the most important issue they would deal with after the tax peace was the fight against unregistered economy.
Unakitan told a press conference that unregistered economy was a shame and they had to solve that problem and called on non-governmental organizations and media to support them in that fight.
Their aim was to take unregistered economy under registration, Unakitan noted.
Unakitan said that the real thing in the budget was to reduce expenditures and increase incomes.
Their policy as the government when increasing the income was not to increase tax rates and impose new taxes, but to take unregistered economy under registration, Unakitan stated.
Unakitan said that the primary expenditure target set for the first four months of 2003 was 21.1 quadrillion Turkish liras (TL) but the primary expenditure in the mentioned period was calculated as 20.8 quadrillion TL.
The primary budget surplus which was 4.9 quadrillion TL in the first quarter of that year reached 6.8 quadrillion by the end of April, Unakitan pointed out.
Unakitan said that the four-month expenditures were in line with the targets.
The four-month revenues were calculated as 27.6 trillion TL, Unakitan stated.
Unakitan said that tax revenues were around 22.3 quadrillion TL, expenditures were around 44.3 quadrillion TL, primary expenditures were around 20.8 quadrillion TL and the primary budget surplus was around 6.7 quadrillion TL.
They would also try to reach the expenditure target in the following months, Unakitan noted.
Unakitan added that they would continue to give priority not to exceed the budget targets and to act in line with the economic program.
(BRC-AÖ) 15.05.2003