Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz has denied claims that Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek was considering resigning due to a dispute over the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s taxation policy, calling the allegations “unsubstantiated.”
Reports appeared in the Turkish media on Wednesday claiming that Şimşek, a former Merrill Lynch economist who was appointed finance minister following the 2023 general election by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, attempted to resign two weeks ago but was stopped by Yılmaz.
Journalist Erol Mütercimler brought up the claim on his YouTube channel earlier this week. Mütercimler claimed that the reason for Şimşek’s alleged intention to resign was a dispute with the government over writing off billions of lira in tax liabilities and unpaid tax penalties primarily for the wealthy at a time when his ministry was working hard to collect taxes to put the country’s ailing economy back on track.
Mütercimler said Yılmaz intervened and was barely able to convince Şimşek to stay.
Yılmaz said in a statement on Wednesday that the claims about Şimşek’s intention to resign were “unsubstantiated” and “speculative” and thus should be ignored.
The anti-disinformation center of Erdoğan’s communications directorate also released a statement on X denying the claims of Şimşek’s plans to resign and saying that the allegations were aimed at creating anxiety and a lack of confidence in the markets.
📌Bazı sosyal medya hesaplarından paylaşılan, “Hazine ve Maliye Bakanı Mehmet Şimşek, görevinden istifa etmek istedi” iddiası doğru değildir.
Bakan Şimşek’in görevinden istifa etme kararı aldığı ve ikna edilerek görevde kaldığına yönelik iddialar gerçeği yansıtmamaktadır.… pic.twitter.com/jjAYGfWubo
— Dezenformasyonla Mücadele Merkezi (@dmmiletisim) August 21, 2024
Şimşek, who did not directly address the claims, reposted the anti-disinformation center’s message on X on Wednesday.
There are frequent claims concerning Şimşek’s disagreement with the government’s taxation policies, which are accused of favoring wealthy corporations that evade their obligations while putting the tax burden on ordinary citizens.
Last month the Finance Ministry admitted that certain large corporations have paid no taxes, sparking public outrage amid a deepening economic crisis and a high cost of living in the country.
The ministry confirmed that some construction firms, despite securing lucrative government contracts worth billions of dollars, have not paid any taxes, attributing this to existing tax exemptions and deductions that it now plans to eliminate.
The ministry promised to implement policy changes to ensure these businesses contribute their fair share in the future.
Unfair taxation?
Meanwhile, Vice President Yılmaz also denied on Wednesday that the government has granted tax amnesty to wealthy corporations. Yılmaz said that to the contrary, Erdoğan backs a taxation policy in which those earning the most pay the most taxes.
However, Cevdet Akay, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), announced last month, based on data from the Turkish Revenue Administration, that the AKP government wrote off TL 7.5 billion ($227 million) in tax liabilities and unpaid tax penalties, primarily for wealthy, pro-government companies, between 2013 and 2023.
Akay announced that the government had forgiven TL 2.5 billion in unpaid taxes and penalties totaling TL 4.9 billion in the last 10 years, accusing it of unfairly penalizing everyday people who pay their taxes while forgiving the tax indebtedness of the rich.