Harsher fines are being considered for stockpiling and exorbitant prices, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said Wednesday, noting that respective legislation regarding the issue would be submitted to Parliament.
"We have completed our work as part of the efforts to fight excessive price increases. Soon, we will forward it to Parliament," Bolat said in an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk.
Answering the questions in a live interview, the minister evaluated the recent economic data, such as a smaller-than-expected current account deficit of $3.27 billion (TL 106 billion) registered in February, referring to the official data the country's central bank shared earlier on Wednesday.
He cited the decline of about 67% in the February deficit compared to a year ago, emphasizing the significant improvement observed. He noted that energy imports complemented the savings and a drop in the foreign trade gap as well.
Regarding the excessive price increases, Bolat said that the lower limit fine against these practices was TL 10,000 in the law enacted in 2020, which had increased to TL 52,500 at the beginning of 2024, while they proposed lifting it to TL 80,000.
He drew attention to the Unfair Price Evaluation Board, established to counteract actions that disrupt the market's supply-demand balance and black market activities. He emphasized that practices against those applying excessive prices were quickly put into effect with intensive inspections.
The board's implementation has proven instrumental in safeguarding consumers' interests and ensuring a fair and stable marketplace.
Bolat said that with the pandemic that emerged in 2020, activities such as stockpiling and exorbitant price increases resurfaced. Pointing out that during the period of supply-demand imbalances, Türkiye faced high inflation like the rest of the world, Bolat expressed that high price increases continued in 2021 and 2022.
He explained that they have conducted a study to increase penalties and presented it to Parliament, saying: "We will make these amendments in the competition law, introduced regarding excessive price increases, hopefully."
Reiterating the range of lower limits for excessive price increases, the minister said the upper limit in a law from 2020 was TL 100,000, which had risen to TL 525,000, while the current proposal is to raise it to TL 800,000.
"This is our proposal, but whatever decision Parliament makes. It will be a deterrent; the important thing is to implement the practices uncompromisingly," said Bolat.
Emphasizing that they have increased the number of inspectors within this framework, Bolat said: "The lower limit in the law regarding stockpiling was TL 100,000. Our current practice is TL 353,000 per company and we will raise it to TL 800,000. The upper limit was TL 2 million in the law in 2020. It is currently applied as TL 7.06 million and our proposal is to raise it to TL 11 million."
"We will fight relentlessly. A temporary closure application would also come. There is also a temporary closure application of (businesses) of about 15 days among the proposals," the minister informed.
He also recalled a measure the Trade Ministry announced earlier this month restricting exports of some 54 groups of products to Israel and said Türkiye was the only country to impose such a measure since Oct. 7, refuting again claims of alleged sales of jet fuels to Israel as false.
