Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board Member Cengiz Günay, who is responsible for the Council, stated that a busy summer period was left behind and thanked the Council for its diligent work.

Council President Alp Önder Özpamukçu shared the developments since the last Council meeting and stated that steps will be taken in public-private sector cooperation to solve the problems of the sector.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Bayraktar, Deputy General Director of Geographic Information Systems of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, who participated in the meeting, made statements about the geographical data permit and license requirement. Council Members who spoke on the subject expressed with sensitivity that the sector will have great difficulty with the implementation of the geographical data permit and that it is essential to arrange the license obligation in a way that does not cover retail.

Mehmet Kayış, Head of the Electronic Commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce, who was invited to the meeting to evaluate the Draft Regulation on Electronic Commerce Service Providers and Intermediary Service Providers, shared the detailed presentation including the basic definitions, the definitions in the Regulation, the obligations to provide information, the obligations related to the order, and the unfair practices in electronic commerce with the sector representatives.

Stating that the ban on installments in many product groups was lifted, the Members drew attention to the importance of lifting the installment limitation, which is still ongoing in cosmetic products, and emphasized that necessary initiatives should be taken before the Public.

Stating that there is a need to update the guides/manuals sent to companies within the scope of COVID-19, sector representatives stated that despite the many measures removed, the regulation of restricting the use of testers in personal care – cosmetic stores has not yet been officially ended, and that some issues should be clarified by the public and the burden of the sector should be alleviated.

Stating that store investments have slowed down, the Council Members agreed that VAT supports to be given for the sector are necessary with increasing costs in order not to lose the vitality in the domestic market and not to decrease the number of stores. In addition, the Members, who spoke on the high electricity bills in the stores, stated that the payments made from the high tariff, especially due to the size of the shopping mall, should be according to the square meter size with the transition to individual subscription.

In the meeting where the difficulty of finding personnel in the IT field of companies accelerating digitalization processes with the pandemic was discussed, it was stated that people live in Türkiye and work with foreign companies, earn income with foreign currency, this is a loss for our country and tax exemption should be introduced for the salaries of those working in the IT field.

In addition, at the meeting, the issue of eliminating the problems experienced in the supplier financing system, which has become an increasingly big problem in the recent period, was discussed and the importance of taking rapid actions before the public was noted.