Alanya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ALTSO) President Eray Erdem met with Alanya Chamber of Certified Public Accountants (ALSMO) President Önder Kıvrak and financial advisors at ALTSO. In his statement after the meeting, Erdem said, “We want tourism professionals, who provide a huge foreign exchange inflow to our country, to benefit from the 5-point corporate tax reduction that is expected to pass through the Parliament, just like exporters.”
ALTSO President Eray Erdem held a meeting with ALSMO President Önder Kıvrak and financial advisors at ALTSO, and discussed issues such as tax burdens in tourism, increasing support and incentives.
Stating that tourism professionals, like exporters, provide a large foreign currency inflow to the country, President Erdem’s statement is as follows: “Recently, we had a demand for VAT applied on basic food products. We stated that the difference between the 1 percent and 8 percent slice comes directly from the business people here, as an additional burden from the service sector. We demanded that hoteliers and restaurant businesses reduce VAT rates from sales to 1%, as in basic food. In addition to this, we mentioned the 2 percent accommodation tax that was introduced this year. We have already pointed out that tourism professionals are a big burden on business people in our region, and that the industry has been going through hard times since the pandemic. Now there has been a new increase of 2 percent. The burden of hoteliers has increased a little more.
In addition, there is a corporate tax advantage of 5 points, which is planned to be given to exporters that are in draft form and expected to be presented to the parliament in the coming days, according to the hearings we have received and the wisdom we have learned. As a tourism region, we demand that the businesses of our business people serving in the service sector, especially our hoteliers, also benefit from this advantage. Because accommodation facilities, like exporters, contribute to our country in terms of foreign currency inflow. Hoteliers, who are one of the biggest stakeholders of tourism, should be allowed to benefit from some exemptions like them in this sense. Our authorities already know how fast and high the transformation of investments in tourism is. Most facilities employ more than a factory with hundreds of employees. Since we do not have to buy raw materials from abroad like industrialists, we contribute to the economy perhaps more than many industrialists.
WE ARE ALSO THANKFUL FOR WHAT HAS DONE
After voicing the reproach of business people that the fact that the Exchange Rate has not increased at the rate of inflation in recent years has forced hoteliers and other tourism representatives, Erdem continued his words as follows; “So far, there have been supports announced by our state in difficult times. We are also grateful for these. But we cannot pass without mentioning that, the effects of both the global crisis in the world and the crisis in our country, which started with the pandemic process, still continue on the tourism sector. Tourism, which started last year with the war between Ukraine and Russia, has taken a huge blow. This year, we are still seeing a great deal of its impact. Our request from our government is that the 5-point corporate tax advantage that the exporter thinks to benefit from should be given to the tourism sector, and in addition to this, perhaps the continuation of the SSI premium incentives. Because, as we said, the crisis that started with the pandemic and still continues its impact on tourism continues. In this sense, our hoteliers and business people are in a big financial bottleneck. Regarding this, we will hold a meeting with the relevant ministries and departments in Ankara in the coming weeks. I would like to thank our chamber president and professionals who attended our meeting today. We will follow this issue on every platform.”
‘TOURISM SECTOR MUST BENEFIT FROM 5 POINT DISCOUNT’
Speaking after President Erdem, ALSMO President Önder Kıvrak said: “We evaluated the problems of the tourism sector with our ALTSO President Eray and our colleagues. We agreed that the income of hoteliers should be evaluated within the scope of service export and a 5 point reduction in the parliament should be given to them from corporate tax. There have been many businesses in our region that have been damaged due to the pandemic. Immediately after the war between Russia and Ukraine, the problems brought by this war, the rise in rent increases and qualified personnel became the main problems of the tourism sector. For this reason, we demand that social security incentives be provided to our tourism professionals in order to increase personnel employment and attract qualified people, and that our hoteliers be exempted from the increase in VAT rates in this region. “
