The retirement Eid bonus is increasing to 4,000 Turkish Lira. The budget for the bonus payments to 15.5 million retirees will amount to 28.4 billion Turkish Lira.

According to the impact analysis conducted on the Bill Proposal for the Amendment of the Law of Youth and Sports Services and Some Laws and Decree Laws, which includes raising the retirement Eid bonus to 4,000 Turkish Lira and regulations regarding birth assistance, discussed at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Planning and Budget Commission, an overview was made. The compilation from the impact analysis shows that the Ministry of Youth and Sports trains 8,000 athletes in Olympic and Paralympic sports every summer and winter in preparation for Olympic games. The Ministry paid athlete allowances totaling 81 million 208 thousand 278.09 Turkish Lira in 2022, 218 million 892 thousand 405.24 Turkish Lira in 2023, 406 million 419 thousand 201.78 Turkish Lira in 2024, and 46 million 58 thousand 365.33 Turkish Lira in January of this year, not exceeding the net amount of the minimum wage. The proposal introduces a method where the general assembly meetings of chambers of certified public accountants, certified public accountants, and sworn-in certified public accountants are announced on the official website of the chambers and mailed to members without registered mail. Currently, there are 134,336 registered professional members in the chambers, and with the estimated cost of 100 Turkish Lira for registered mail for one A4 paper, a reduction of 13.4336 million Turkish Lira in postage costs, excluding the chambers’ labor, time, and stationery expenses, is expected.

RETIREMENT EID BONUS
In the bill proposal, the President’s duty and retirement allowance are standardized, similar to those of deputies and ministers. The President’s duty and retirement allowance are recalculated based on a 5% increase over the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s duty and retirement allowance. The amendment is estimated to have an annual total cost, including retirement allowance, of approximately 670,000 Turkish Lira, with an estimated 8-month cost of approximately 450,000 Turkish Lira in 2025. A regulation added to the Social Security and Universal Health Insurance Law on May 11, 2018, provided for a 1,000 Turkish Lira Eid bonus to be paid for the Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays to income and pension beneficiaries of the Social Security Institution. The Eid bonus, which was raised to 3,000 Turkish Lira on March 2, 2024, will be paid as 4,000 Turkish Lira for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha once the bill proposal becomes law.

The increase of 1,000 Turkish Lira in the Eid bonus is estimated to create an additional cost of 28.4 billion Turkish Lira for the 2025 budget.

FOREIGN PLATE VEHICLE REGULATION
The proposal foresees that a total of 15.5 million recipients will receive the Eid bonus as the payment will be made from a single file to those receiving monthly and/or income from multiple files. Accordingly, a regulation is introduced to collect toll fees and any fines from foreign-plated vehicles passing through highways before they leave the country. As 60% of the amount collected will be recorded as service charge in the general budget, an estimated annual income of approximately 5 million dollars is expected. Changes are made to the regulation regarding the payment of performance bonuses to the personnel of the State Airports Authority (DHMİ). As per the new regulation, the amount to be paid as performance bonus will be calculated by multiplying the number of outgoing aircraft traffic from civilian airports in Turkey by 40% of the official monthly coefficient. The implementation of the regulation will lead to an additional payment of approximately 4 billion 508 million 860 thousand 637 Turkish Lira to the 12,007 personnel working at DHMİ from the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), without burdening the national budget.

Through an amendment in the Decree Law on Some Regulations in the Social Services Field, birth assistance will be provided to children born on and after January 1, 2025, under the condition of applying until the child reaches the age of 5 and resides in Turkey. A 5-year cost analysis and projection were prepared for the Birth Assistance Program, which is expected to reach a budget of 22.8 billion Turkish Lira in the first year, 45.7 billion Turkish Lira in the second year, 67.6 billion Turkish Lira in the third year, 89.5 billion Turkish Lira in the fourth year, and 111.4 billion Turkish Lira in the fifth year based on birth statistics obtained from the Turkish Statistical Institute. Considering that the budget for the current program was 211 million Turkish Lira in 2024, an approximate additional cost of 22.6 billion Turkish Lira in the first year was calculated.