Turkey has tripled petrol taxes as the government tries to raise money to recoup the cost of huge giveaways in the run-up to May’s election and to fund a reconstruction effort costing up to $100bn after February’s devastating earthquake.
Taxes on regular petrol were increased about 200 per cent to TL7.53 a litre, with levies on diesel and a series of other petroleum products lifted as well, according to an announcement on Sunday in Turkey’s official gazette. The increase pushed up petrol prices at the pump by about 20 per cent, data from state oil company Turkish Petroleum showed.
The tax increase is the latest in a string of measures announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since his re-election on May 28. Value added taxes on a wide variety of goods and services were increased earlier this month as Erdoğan’s new economic team has pledged “rational” policies, after years of unconventional measures pushed Turkey’s $900bn economy into a crisis.