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OLIVE OIL AWAITS ‘VAT’ REDUCTION!

Press release…

Akhisar (a district of Manisa province) Commodity Exchange Chairman Alper Alhat said that 400 thousand producers wanted VAT of the olive oil retail to be reduced from 8 percent to 1 percent.

Reminding that some suppliers, who took advantage of the explosion of demand in the first wave of the pandemic, raised the prices, Alhat said, “The issue was not only the increase in mask and disinfectant prices, but all kinds of opportunism. So much that prices soared 100 percent at that time, olive and olive oil producers did not raise the prices as in last 5 years. Solely olive and olive oil producers deserve to be supported.”

400 thousand producers are waiting for happy news…

Pointing out that the most important support they expect from the goverment is the reduction of the retail VAT rate in olive oil from 8 percent to 1 percent, Alhat noted, “In this period, the tourism industry suffered a great deal. The VAT rate has been reduced to 1 percent within the scope of the support. Restaurants suffered, VAT rates were reduced. Of course, these supports were necessary. But we have been experiencing difficulties as an olive olive oil producer for years. 400 thousand producers are pouring sweat for a product that does not have an import. We demand that the retail VAT of olive oil be reduced to 1 percent.”

Vegetable oil is different, olive oil is different…

Emphasizing that the importance of self-sufficiency of countries emerged with the slowdown of international trade during the pandemic process, Alhat explained, “We are very uncomfortable that the olive oil, which is the product of these lands, is evaluated with the same status as other vegetable oils. In fact, according to the legislation of our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, olive oil is the strategic product of our country and therefore it is completely different from other vegetable oils. However, this situation has been ignored in both the tax regulations and the Recycling Participation Share (GEKAP) application and it is tested with the same burden as other vegetable oils.”

It weighs us down…

Indicating that the sale of imported vegetable oil and olive oil at the same VAT rate and the fact that the GEKAP fee started to be taken when it had nothing to do with olive oil, weighed the industry down, Alhat added:

“GEKAP should never be taken from olive oil, which does not harm the environment even if it is not taken from butter. It is an additional cost for these producers, which is not justified. We worked for 6 years for the olive subsidy. They want to get more than the subsidy from us through GEKAP. There are 860 olive oil factories in our country. All these fees will be charged during the season. They will have to hire an environmental consultant. Those who cannot regulate will face a lot of serious penalties. The factories will reflect this cost to the producer. At that time, serious problems will occur for the producer.”

“We object to GEKAP to be applied to olive oil itself, not to GEKAP applied in packaging waste,” Alhat concluded…

About İsmail Uğural

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