Business

In the January-October period, Turkiye’s exports amounted to $209.5 billion

Trade Minister Mehmet Mus said that exports in the 10 months of 2022 were $209.5 billion. Stating that exports to different geographies of the world have increased, Minister Mus announced that the highest levels have been reached on both a monthly and 10-month basis.

Trade Minister Mehmet Mus stated that as a result of the anti-smuggling activities carried out by the Customs Enforcement teams, smuggled goods worth ₺10 billion were seized.

In his presentation on the 2023 budget of his ministry at the Parliamentary Plan and Budget Committee, Minister Mus said that with the coronavirus conditions, e-commerce gained a great momentum in Turkey as well as all over the world.

Mus stated that the e-commerce volume, which was approximately ₺161 billion in the first 6 months of last year, increased to ₺348 billion in the same period of 2022. He stated that with the amendment made in the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce, a fair and transparent market will be established and the rights of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and tradesmen in e-commerce marketplaces will be protected.

“The total amount of interest discounted loans extended during the year exceeded ₺56 billion”

Mus stated that the number of pledge agreements registered with the Movable Pledge in Commercial Transactions Application, which facilitates the access of traders, craftsmen and farmers to finance by collateralizing all their movable assets with economic value, has reached 64 thousand and said, “With these contracts, our commercial actors have reached the opportunity of financing in 2022 in return for a guarantee amount of approximately ₺774 billion.”

Stating that they continue to support the tradesmen and craftsmen who have been harmed due to COVID-19 with 50% and 100% interest discounted loans, Mus said, “As of October 31, the total amount of interest-reduced loans extended during the year exceeded ₺56 billion. In October, new financing opportunities for tradesmen and craftsmen were announced to the public by our President. In this context, those who used a loan from Halkbank and followed suit were provided with the opportunity to liquidate their debts with a loan with a grace period of up to 6 months, a maturity of up to 36 months and an interest rate of 4%. In addition, the interest rates on loans used by artisans and craftsmen from Halkbank were reduced to 7.5%; Credit upper limits have been increased to ₺500 thousand for business loans and to ₺1.5 million for investment loans.

Minister Mus stated that more than 453 thousand applications were made to the consumer arbitration committees as of the end of September, and that more than 441 thousand applications were concluded in the same period and the disputes amounting to approximately ₺900 million were settled.

“The number of export declarations increased by 5.6%”

Noting that in the 10-month period of the year, the number of export declarations processed in customs administrations increased by 5.6% compared to the same period of the previous year, and exceeded 4 million, Mus reported that approximately 9.2 million vehicles and 108 million passengers were processed in this period. Explaining that the modernization works of the Mus, Turkgozu, Gurbulak and Pazarkule customs gates continue he added saying, “The project works for the renewal of Sanliurfa Customs Directorate, Mersin Laboratory Directorate, Aegean Customs and Foreign Trade Regional Directorate, Sirnak/Silopi and Hakkari/Yuksekova lodgings and Ceylanpınar Customs Gate have been completed and construction activities will start soon. Balikesir and Nizip customs directorates became operational in 2022, and we will increase the number of directorates we will open at Cukurova Airport to 167 in the coming period.”

Mus said that more than 10 thousand tenders were made through the e-tender system in 10 months of the year, resulting in more than ₺1 billion in revenue and an increase of 122% compared to the same period of the previous year.

“We have prevented ₺30 billion public loss”

Providing information on the fight against smuggling, Mus continued his words as follows:

“Within the scope of the National Scanning System Project (MILTAR), we put our first national scanning system into operation at Alsancak Port. Subsequently, we started to work on the domestic production of semi-fixed and mobile scanning systems and signed a cooperation protocol with our Defense Industry Presidency. Thanks to this project, our country will be one of the limited number of countries that can mass-produce scanning systems.

With our Scanning Network Project, we are establishing a system that can rapidly analyze x-ray images of vehicles and containers scanned at customs gates simultaneously, both at the center and in the field, using artificial intelligence. As a result of the anti-smuggling activities carried out by our Customs Enforcement teams, smuggled goods worth ₺10 billion were seized. In the works carried out by the Fuel Special Team working within our Ministry, we detected ₺4 billion worth of tax losses and ₺10 billion of fake invoices, and 1262 tons of illegal fuel was confiscated.”

Mus also drew attention to the fact that they have prevented more than ₺30 billion of public loss by carrying out studies to prevent abuses committed through foreign sales.

Giving examples of their work in the fight against drug smuggling, Mus said, “We have seized the highest amount of liquid methamphetamine of all time, one of which is 1 ton of 18 kilos and the other is 622 kilos, at the Gurbulak Customs Gate. In addition to catching 2 tons of 91 kilos of captagon, which went down in history as a record-breaking capture at Istanbul Ambarlı Port, we also seized 338 kilos of captagon in Istanbul and 404 kilos at Cilvegozu Customs Gate. In addition, by catching 513 kilos of heroin at Esendere Customs Gate, we achieved the highest amount of heroin seizure of recent times. Recently, a total of 305 kilos of drugs, 285 kilos of heroin, were seized at the Gurbulak Customs Gate.”

Minister Mus stated that since November 2019, when accreditation applications started to be accepted to the Halal Accreditation Agency (HAK), 80 accreditation requests have been received from 23 different countries, including Turkey. He said that HAK has taken 27 accreditation decisions and the number of halal certificates within the scope of accreditation assurance has exceeded 790.

“The total of the 2023 budget of the Ministry of Commerce is ₺17.1 billion”

Mus stated that the 2023 budget of the Ministry of Commerce, to be used in line with its purposes and activities, is₺ 17 billion 124 million 310 thousand in total.

He said that ₺13 billion 335 million 123 thousand of this amount was allocated to the Trade Regulation, Development and Facilitation Program, and ₺1 billion 988 million 706 thousand to the Management and Support Program. ₺1 billion 411 million 43 thousand to the Program for Combating Informal Economy, ₺368 million 634 thousand to the Consumer Protection, Safety and Standardization of Products and Services Program, ₺20 million 804 thousand were allocated as Non-Program Expenses, Mus said that according to the economic classification, ₺10 billion 466 million 16 thousand of the ministry’s 2023 budget proposal were allocated to current transfers, that is, to expenses related to supporting exporters and traders.

Source: Trthaber / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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