The head of Turkey’s main opposition party on Wednesday said he will not pay his power bills until the government retracts the recent price hikes, in a move that was slammed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party as a provocation.
Turkey’s annual inflation soared to a 20-year high of 48.69% in January, according to official data. In response, the government raised the minimum wage by 50% for 2022. The prices of gas, power, petrol and road tolls also increased to account for import price volatility.
The government has pledged rearrangements and vowed to safeguard households against soaring prices.
"I will not pay any of my electricity bills from today until Erdoğan withdraws the price hikes which he signed on December 31," Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said overnight.
In a video released on his Twitter account, Kılıçdaroğlu also called for a reduction in the value-added tax (VAT) imposed on power bills to 1% from 18%.
Electricity prices were raised by as much as 125% for high-demand commercial users and by around 50% for lower-demand households at the beginning of January.
The government has been endorsing a model based on lower borrowing costs, saying credit, exports and investment will help the country weather inflation. Erdoğan has said the new economic path will also eventually help Turkey solve its chronic current account deficit problem and contribute to stabilizing the Turkish lira.
To support the drive, Turkey’s central bank has slashed its interest rates by 500 basis points since September to 14%, before pausing the easing cycle last month.
‘Provocation’
A deputy chairperson of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Hamza Dağ, said Kılıçdaroğlu’s move was provocative and part of a years-old destructive role played by the opposition.
"This action amounts to a provocation, an attempt to create chaos," Dağ told broadcaster CNN Türk in an interview when asked whether Turks might follow his lead and not pay their bills.
"I don’t believe there will be such an outcome," he said, reiterating government comments that Ankara was working on efforts to address public concerns over energy price rises, which he said reflected global developments.
"We repeatedly say that our citizens should be affected by this as little as possible."
Households, shopkeepers, city councils and religious community groups this week complained about the rising energy costs.
The government is working on a potential rearrangement of energy bills, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said on Wednesday.
Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın also said a new measure regarding power bills would be announced "very soon," telling broadcaster A Haber on Monday: "We will not let our citizens be crushed by inflation."
The government has increased the limit in the gradual electricity tariff for households to 210-kilowatt-hour (kWh) per month from 150 kWh as of Feb.1.
Under the earlier charges, households were subject to pay TL 1.37 ($0.09) per kWh for as much as 150 kWh per month, and TL 2.06 above that limit.