The "ITO Business Meeting" program organized by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce was held in Istanbul

At the meeting hosted by Istanbul Chamber of Commerce President Şekib Avdagiç and attended by Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati, TÜROB President Müberra Eresin, members of the ITO Board and Professional Committees, and representatives from the business world, current developments in the economy as well as requests and expectations from the government were assessed.

In his opening speech at the program, ITO President Şekib Avdagiç noted that Istanbul produces one third of Türkiye's national income, that Istanbul-based business people carry out 50 percent of foreign trade, and that 46 percent of Türkiye's tax revenue is paid from Istanbul. He stated that as the business world they are focused on combating inflation and expect measures to encourage employment to continue. Pointing out that on the tax wedge indicator, which expresses the ratio of the burdens on employment in particular to net wages, the OECD average is 24.4 percent while in Türkiye this ratio is 38.2 percent, he emphasized that every burden to be reduced would return to our economy again in the form of additional employment, investment and tax. Avdagiç emphasized that, although there have been significant improvements in the VAT refund mechanism, accelerating the refund processes is extremely important for them, and noted that in this context it is important for VAT receivables to be offset against companies' public payments such as taxes and SGK (social security).

In his speech, Treasury and Finance Minister Mr. Nureddin Nebati stated that ITO, with more than 640,000 members and a 140-year history, has made an important contribution to all the advances Türkiye has achieved over the past 20 years and to the noticeable increase in its influence in the global economy and world politics, that as the government they have always cooperated with the business world, and that decisive steps are being taken to overcome the problems faced by the business world. Noting that as of today 782 billion TL has accumulated in the foreign exchange-protected deposit and participation accounts they launched on 20 December, Minister Nebati said they had decided to implement many financial and tax measures aimed at increasing TL savings, that they had extended the average maturity of deposits, and that they had achieved stability in the exchange rate, which is an important determinant of inflation. Speaking about the measures they have implemented such as their support for renewable energy, the reduction made in corporate tax, offsetting the tax debts of contractors doing business with the public sector against their receivables from the public sector, facilitating VAT refund processes, simplifying VAT, removing tax on the minimum wage, and reducing VAT on food to 1 percent, as well as about recent developments in our country's and the world's economy and the Ministry's work, Minister Nebati stated that the positive results of both the fight against inflation and the fight against foreign exchange would be seen within a short time.

The second part of the meeting, in which Minister Nebati listened to the participants' requests and answered their questions, was held closed to the press.