A total of TRY 68.9bn (EUR 26bn) worth of funds have been declared under the wealth amnesty scheme as of November 19, finance minister Mehmet Simsek said. The government is supposed to collect TRY 1.4bn tax from the declared funds. Parliament passed a bill in May, known as the wealth amnesty law, to lure back funds which Turkish companies and citizens keep abroad. Declared assets are subject to a 2% tax.
The actual inflow inflows amounted to TRY 8.5bn and the government collected TRY 170mn tax from repatriated funds, Simsek also said. Deputy PM Ali Babacan had estimated the amount of the funds held by Turkish citizens and corporations abroad at USD 130bn of which USD 50bn are believed to be parked in US Treasury bills.
It was previously reported that the Turkish government targets to raise USD 30bn in revenue from the wealth amnesty programme.
The authorities used a similar amnesty scheme in 2009 when TRY 50bn worth of assets were declared but the actual inflows were only around TRY 30bn.
Simsek also said that the government raised TRY 1.5bn from the sales of deforested lands.
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