Business

Turkey: SME definition updated, more businesses included

The definition, qualifications, classification and principles of small and medium-sized enterprises were rearranged by taking into account their net sales revenues, financial balance sheet amounts and number of employees. Providing information about the regulation of the new structure, Minister Varank said, “With the new SME definition, which is regulated according to today’s conditions, more enterprises will be able to benefit from other incentives of the state as well as KOSGEB supports.”

The “Regulation Amending the Regulation on the Definition, Qualifications and Classification of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises”, prepared within the scope of the Presidential Decree, entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette.

The criteria used in the determination of SMEs were updated with the regulation.

Accordingly, businesses that employ less than 250 employees, and whose annual net sales revenue or financial balance sheet does not exceed ₺250 million Turkish are defined as SMEs. In the previous regulation, the upper limit to enter the SME class was ₺125 million.

In addition, the annual net sales revenue or financial balance of “micro-enterprises” with less than 10 employees was increased from ₺3 million to ₺5 million. The limit for “small businesses” with less than 50 employees was increased from ₺25 million to ₺50 million. The upper limit for “medium-sized enterprises” with less than 250 employees has increased from ₺125 million to ₺250 million exponentially.

“MORE BUSINESSES ARE ABLE TO GET SUPPORT”

Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank gave information about the amendment made in the regulation in his written statement.

Stating that he believes that SME businesses will produce more qualified, high-productivity, technology-oriented projects that will contribute to the reduction of the current account deficit with the said change, Varank stated that businesses have grown together with Turkey. Varank made the following assessment:

“The business volumes of our businesses expanded, their turnover and balance sheets increased. Accordingly, we received requests from our stakeholders to update the financial criteria in the definition of SME. We made this change to include more businesses in the scope of support. With the new SME definition arranged according to today’s conditions, more enterprises will be able to benefit from other incentives of the state as well as KOSGEB supports. May this revision be beneficial and auspicious to all our SMEs.”

10 TIMES INCREASE IN 10 YEARS

According to the information shared by Varank in his statement, the financial constraints in the definition of SME were increased from ₺25 million to ₺40 million in 2012 and to ₺125 million in 2018. After 10 years, this upper limit has increased 10 times.

According to the end of 2021 data of the Turkish Statistical Institute, there are 3 million 427 thousand 891 enterprises in Turkey. Of these, 3 million 419 thousand 773 are within the scope of SMEs. With the arrangement made, this number increased to 3 million 421 thousand 817. Thus, 2 thousand 44 enterprises were included in the SME class, and they had the opportunity to benefit from the state’s support and incentives for SMEs.

Source: NTV / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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