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Upgraded system to expedite KDV refund process
Introducing a “KDV Refund Risk Analysis Project” at a press conference on Monday in Ankara, Şimşek said his ministry expected to speed up the KDV refund process for taxpayers.
The minister noted they expected to save both time and money thanks to the new program, which will carry out operations swiftly using an electronic database system. The new system will make it possible for KDV refunds, which take 10 days on average, to be finalized instantly leading to increased productivity at tax offices across the country.
With regard to tax refund fraud committed through the current refund system, the minister said the new system will conduct comprehensive risk analysis and monitor taxpayers’ operations closely in order to avoid any attempts to forge documents. “In this way we will be able to uncover taxpayers who have committed fraud by using falsified documents more easily and faster than we have [in the past],” he said, emphasizing that the government places great importance both on providing an effective KDV refund system and minimizing risks. “The total KDV refunds in 2008 reached TL 13.3 billion and were 22 percent of the entire KDV income of the state that year. The KDV refunds in the first 11 months of 2009 totaled TL 11.6 billion, and this amount equaled 22 percent of the total KDV income since the beginning of the year. This makes up a prominent sum in the budget.”
With the new system, taxpayers will be able to send the relevant documents to the Revenues Administration’s central electronic system via the Internet instead of going to tax offices. A major portion of the KDV refund operations, which are currently carried out manually via the Tax Department Automation Project (VEDOP) system, will be transferred to a digital environment. Meanwhile, asked whether the government planned to introduce a new KDV rate for the construction sector, the minister said they have not yet decided on this issue.
‘Gov’t has done its best in Tekel issue’
Minister Şimşek said the government has done everything it can for the workers dismissed from Tekel, Turkey’s alcohol and tobacco monopoly. “We have introduced the necessary regulations to make sure that the workers are not treated unjustly. However, the government does not have the luxury of wasting public money.” Recalling that the privatization of Tekel was not authorized by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government but the previous ones, he said that in 2007 the government had granted the workers two extra years before they were laid off. “During these two years the government continued to pay the workers’ salaries.” Noting that the state has to pay some TL 40 million annually for the Tekel employees, the minister called on the workers to accept Article 4/C, which provides laid off public workers temporary employment for 11 months.
Having lost their jobs due to factory closures in the wake of the monopoly’s privatization, the employees started a protest in Ankara on Dec. 15, demanding that the government find positions for them with other state institutions or enterprises. On the 35th day of the dispute, protestors from across the country started a hunger strike in front of the Ankara headquarters of the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş).
Meanwhile, European Parliament member Jürgen Klute and German Food Workers Union member Selahattin Yıldırım met with Mustafa Türkel, the president of the Union of Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverage, Food and Related Industry Workers (TekGıda-İş), in Ankara on Monday. Visiting the workers, who are continuing their protest in front of the Türk-İş headquarters, Klute said they supported the Tekel workers’ dispute.
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