Istanbul pays almost TL 90 billion in taxes

The government collected TL 194.67 billion ($71.465 billion) out of TL 297.50 billion in taxes levied in the January-June period, according to data from the Finance Ministry, with the tax collection rate hitting 69.9 percent in this period. A total of 80.2 percent of the taxes were collected from Istanbul, Ankara, Kocaeli and İzmir in the first half of the year, meaning TL 80.2 out of each TL 100 came from these four cities. Istanbul was the city that collected the most tax at TL 89.63 billion, followed by Ankara at TL 23.15 billion, Kocaeli at TL 22.14 billion and İzmir at TL 21.14 billion. Kocaeli topped the tax collection rate list at 85 percent, followed by İzmir at 76.3 percent, Istanbul at 74.2 percent, Hatay and Tunceli at 72.6 percent each, Tekirdağ at 72.3 percent and Mersin at 71 percent. An industrial city, Kocaeli also come first in per capita tax in the same period. A total of TL 12,855 was collected as per capita tax in Kocaeli in the first half of the year, five times more than the country's average of TL 2,505.