PRESS RELEASE OF THE MINISTRY OF TREASURY AND FINANCE REGARDING THE LEGISLATIVE CHANGES IN RESPECT OF FOREIGN CURRENCY PAYMENTS


18 September 2018

A. INTRODUCTION

The Ministry of Treasury and Finance has issued a press release in relation to the certain amendments to the Decree No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of the Turkish Currency which has been published in the official gazette dated 13 September 2018 numbered 30534.

B. TEXT OF THE PRESS RELEASE

“As is known, certain amendments have been made on the Decree No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of the Turkish Currency (Decree No. 32) dated 07.08.1989 with respect to the agreements between persons residing in Turkey, by the Presidential Decree No. 85 dated 12.09.2018 which has been published in the official gazette dated 13.09.2018 and numbered 30534 and entered into force as of the publication date.

While evaluating the scope of these amendments, the first issue to be considered is that they only include agreements which are entered into by persons residing in Turkey as defined under the Decree No. 32.

On the other hand, as per the provisional Article 8, while determining the scope of the existing agreements including a value determined in foreign currency that have been executed prior to this decree (Presidential Decree No. 85), the issue to be taken into account is that both parties must have been persons residing in Turkey when the transaction was concluded.

Further, in accordance with both of the new articles under the aforesaid amendment, it is provided that certain exemptions to be deemed appropriate by the Ministry can be provided with respect to the already executed agreements or agreements to be executed in the future.

While determining the scope of the exemptions to be provided by the Ministry, input costs or obligations in foreign currency will be the first things to be taken into account. For instance, agreements entered into by persons residing in Turkey that can obtain foreign currency loans and therefore have obligations in foreign currency without being subject to any limitation as per Article 17 and 17/A of the Decree No. 32 which regulates the use of foreign currency loans, will be assessed in this context.

In this respect, the scope of the aforesaid amendment will be determined and announced by our Ministry within due course in a manner that does not create any trouble to economic activities, by considering the opinions of the relevant state institutions and other stakeholders.

Respectfully announced to the public.”

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