An important meeting was held in Ankara on the first day of the new week.
Minister of Finance and Treasury Mehmet Şimşek met with CHP’s Shadow Minister for Finance and Treasury Yalçin Karatepe at the ministry.
The meeting started at 10am and lasted 4 hours and 15 minutes.
After the meeting, Minister Şimşek saw Mr. Karatepe off to his car.
Kara Tepe: We have submitted four main requests.
After the meeting, Kara Tepe held a press conference at the CHP headquarters.
“We are not going to share the government’s responsibility for the economic destruction our people have experienced,” the CHP’s Kara Tepe said. “We held this meeting to protect the rights of the masses we represent and to ensure that they do not pay the price.”
The CHP’s Kara Tepe said he had conveyed four main demands to Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek: “A temporary increase in the minimum wage, a significant increase in pensions, an increase in agricultural support and a 1% payment to farmers, and the elimination of agricultural support. We consider tax inequality to be one of the key issues in the economy,” he said.
“But unfortunately, there was no will to change understanding, and at the end of the four hours, we gave the people a bitter prescription,” Kara Tepe said.
“The minimum wage needs to be raised”
Kara Tepe said he rejected the minimum wage increase in the second half of the year when inflation was high, saying “we expressed to the respected minister that this increase is necessary.”
Kara Tepe said the pension increase was necessary, saying, “According to the law, we must increase the inflation rate, but we said this is not enough, we need more, we need additional increases. We have earned as much as the numbers that have grown,” he said.
Civil servant
The situation is even more negative for retired civil servants, Kara Tepe said, adding:
“Increase in pensions for civil servants. As you know, the expression ‘inflation difference + contract difference’ is used. From the inflation data shown for the first six months, the part resulting from the first half of the contract is subtracted, and then the two-year contract difference is calculated. The second six-month period is added. If such a practice is implemented, retired civil servants will receive only a 20% pay increase. “I would like to say that this is not enough.”
“High taxes need to be levied on high-income earners.”
“We expressed to the respected minister that high-income earners should be taxed at a higher rate to ensure tax fairness,” Kara Tepe said.
