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In the year 1999, there was a severe earthquake in Turkey, in which more than 17000 people died. It was not easy for Turkey to recover from this earthquake. The country had also suffered economic losses on a large scale. In such a situation, the then government had started collecting earthquake tax from people to deal with natural calamities like earthquake and to carry out relief works.
Turkey, a Muslim country situated on the border of Asia and Europe, was hit by such a calamity in the early hours of Monday, which took away the lives of thousands of people. The tremors of these earthquakes that came one after the other changed the face of Turkey. For those who survived the devastation of the earthquake that killed thousands of people, the problems increased further. People who have lost everything are forced to spend cold nights either on the streets or in relief camps. In such a situation, the government of President Erdogan is surrounded by 'earthquake tax'.
Along with the opposition, the local people are asking the government that where is the earthquake tax money and where and when did the government spend it? By putting the government directly in the dock, questions are being asked that where did the amount of 88 billion lira go, which has been being collected in the name of earthquake tax for several decades. Please tell that lira is the name of the currency of Turkey.
What is Turkey’s earthquake tax?
In the year 1999, there was a severe earthquake in Turkey, in which more than 17000 people died. It was not easy for Turkey to recover from this earthquake. The country had also suffered economic losses on a large scale. In such a situation, the then government had started collecting earthquake tax from people to deal with natural calamities like earthquake and to carry out relief works. Since then, this tax is being collected continuously from the people and at present the estimated amount of its amount is being told as 88 billion lira i.e. 4.6 billion dollars. This tax is officially called Special Communication Tax. But till date the government has never made it public that how this amount was used?
Political drama amid earthquake
The Turkish government has imposed a three-month state of emergency in the 10 provinces most affected by the earthquake. In this way, this emergency will remain till April and presidential elections are going to be held in the country in May. The opposition is also calling this a political gimmick of the Erdogan government. Turkey's opposition has a coalition of right-wing parties and center-left parties. Kamal Kilicdaroglu can become the presidential candidate from the opposition coalition. Targeting the Erdogan government, he said that his government had not made any preparations to deal with the earthquake in so many years.
Kilicdaroglu has posted a video saying that he will not meet President Erdogan on any platform. He accused Erdogan of engaging in PR activities since the earthquake.
According to the report of the news agency AFP, apart from the opposition, the local people affected by the earthquake are also asking questions to the Erdogan government that where did our tax money go. Where is the money that we have paid as earthquake tax since 1999?
Many such videos are going viral on social media, in which it can be seen that people are asking the government that the government is not able to provide any special help. The interesting thing is that this amount collected under earthquake tax is not deposited in any special fund, but it is directly included in the budget amount.
Where was the earthquake tax money spent?
Has opened a front against the government regarding the earthquake tax fund. Allegations are being made against the government that most of the money collected in the name of earthquake tax was not spent for the purpose for which it was collected from the people. The government has never told in all these years that where and when this money was spent.
According to a report in Arab News, Turkey's opposition parties allege that the government is misusing the earthquake tax it collects to protect cities and villages from earthquakes. Lawyer and politician Alpay Entmen says that this fund was supposed to be used for the development of cities and for disaster prevention in earthquake-affected areas, but a large part of this money was spent on other purposes and this money was given to builders close to the government. was transferred to
Alpay Entmen had also said that in 2019, he had handed over the details of the money collected from the earthquake tax to the then Finance Minister, wherever the government had spent it. This investigation report was later submitted to the Interior Ministry of Turkey, but the reply has come from there that they have no information about it.
Erdogan, who has been holding the power of Turkey for the last 20 years, has been the President of the country since 2014, whereas before 2014 he was on the post of Prime Minister. When there was an uproar over the earthquake tax last time in 2019-2020, Erdogan had said at that time that we have spent this amount where it should have been spent. At present, we do not have time to answer these matters.
Let us inform that till now more than 11,000 deaths have occurred due to earthquake in Turkey and Syria. In Turkey alone, about 9000 deaths have occurred due to earthquake while about 50,000 people are injured.
News is originally taken from: https://www.aajtak.in/world/story/turkey-earthquake-tax-latest-news-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan-people-angry-ntc-1632874-2023-02-08
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