Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has told governors to sell their official cars if they want to buy the country’s first domestically manufactured electric car, TOGG, as part of measures aimed at reducing costs in the public sector, the Milliyet daily reported.
Şimşek, who met with governors from Turkey’s 81 provinces last week, asked them to pay the utmost care to cost saving measures in the public sector since Justice and Development Party (AKP) government officials and its bureaucrats are criticized for their generous use of public money to buy luxury cars for official use.
When some of the governors told Şimşek at the end of the meeting that they want to buy TOGG cars, the minister told them they can buy the electric cars as their official cars as long as they sell their current vehicles.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan launched TOGG in late 2022, which was seen as a major breakthrough for the country’s automobile industry. Yet critics have said Erdoğan was using the investment to boost his chances of re-election in the 2023 presidential election. Others said although TOGG vehicles are designed and assembled in Turkey, components like batteries, engines and some electrical systems are imported, hence they are not really domestically manufactured as Erdoğan boasts.
Şimşek also told the governors to avoid wasting public money on luxury items and to be moderate in their purchases. He said he uses his notebooks until the last page is filled and avoids wasting paper.
“The money we are spending is not our father’s but the nation’s,” Şimşek told the governors.
Well-respected economist Şimşek was appointed finance minister following the elections in May when President Erdoğan secured yet another term in power.
Şimşek, along with new central bank governor Hafize Gaye Erkan, is trying to tame Turkey’s skyrocketing inflation, which stood at almost 65 percent in December in addition to reduce trade deficits, rebuild foreign exchange reserves and stabilize the lira.
The new economic team is implementing a new program and began to increase interest rates in a major economic policy reversal in a bid to achieve their financial goals.