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We are going through days of corona full of uncertainties. On the one side, there is a struggle to survive and, on the other side, there is a struggle to keep one's head above the water.
The gravity of what we go through aside, there also happen things driving one to despair. When we see that, in this complete mess, some worry about lodging tenders, rush to appoint trustees, introduce an accommodation tax and regulations on VAT rates of airline transport and credit viability rates of houses as part of economic measures, we understand that the agenda of the government and that of the people are quite different from one another.
Citizens and NGOs are requested to donate money to the campaign "we are enough for another" to provide the services which, in fact, need to be considered a responsibility of public institutions. They want citizens to finance the services that will be offered to them "because of inadequate public funding." Can this campaign be explained in any other way?
All authorities say that life and human are more important than everything else; then, they start to utter sentences that start with BUT and, most frequently, the sentence of "but funding is inadequate."
While a great number of people believe that no one should be dismissed and aid in kind and aid in cash must be granted to the poor, migrants, informal workers and unemployed people, they are influenced by such manipulative statements that funding will not be enough.
But, Is it really because of inadequate public funding or because of the preferences as to which segments, how and in what proportion will this public funding be distributed? It is the main question that is critical and needs to be examined here.
I aim to look into the issue in simpler terms and to give an example to show how much funding can be created if a couple of budget items are slashed and which basic needs can be met with this extra funding:
A swift look at 2020 budget
To tackle the main problem that I have mentioned above, let's take a swift look at the expense items in 2020 budget. This examination can be made based on the institutions which are allocated with this budget items or the affairs for which these expenses are allocated.
1 - Institutional examination: General Budget Institutions such as Presidency, Ministries, Council of State, Court of Accounts, National Intelligence Organization (MİT), Directorate of Religious Affairs; Special Budget Institutions such as Assessment Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM), Turkish Historical Society, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (KOSGEB), Turkish Standards Institutions (TSİ), State Hydraulic Works (DSİ); and Regulatory and Supervisory Institutions such as Radio and Television Supreme Council, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, Energy Market Regulatory Board, Public Procurement Agency expenses planned for 2020 are handled here. Basic expense items are personnel expenses, social security expenditures, goods and service expenses, current transfers, capital expenses and capital transfers.
As, under these circumstances, it is one of our primary targets to ensure that everyone keeps their jobs and social security, I will exclude personnel expenses and social security expenditures and, since we do not have adequate information about the their details, I will also exclude current transfers and capital transfers from the examination. To put it more clearly, I will only examine the items of goods and services and capital expenses.
The distribution of these items in 2020 budget by institutions is as follows:
If the above institutions makes a reduction of only 30 percent in these two expense items in the 2020 budget;
159,879,9530000 * 30% = 47,963,985.900 TRY funding will be created.
In other words, approx. 48 BILLION TRY.
What would this funding mean?
When we consider that the net monthly minimum wage is 2,324 TRY, this funding will meet 20,654,045 minimum wages. If we consider that the quarantine days for corona will continue for 4 months;
5,163,511 (5 million 163 thousand 511) persons or households will be paid minimum wage for 4 months.
2 - Functional examination: The shares allocated for transportation, healthcare, education and agriculture investments to be met from the central administration budget are shown in groups. To give an example in its most plain form, I will only examine the transportation expenditures and the payments to be made to contractor companies for Public-Private Cooperation projects.
Transportation expenditures cover the investments in motorways, dual carriageways, etc. in highways and investments in airports and harbors, etc.
The Public-Private Cooperation projects cover city hospitals, power plants, marinas and airport construction projects undertaken with build-operate-transfer or build-operate-rent models. The state makes payments to contractor companies for these investments such as current expenditures (maintenance and repair, cleaning and computer services, etc.), rent and security deposit for purchase of services.
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According to the 2020 budget, the share allocated for new highways, airports, harbors etc. is 17,7 billion TRY and the share to be paid to Public-Private Cooperation projects for current expenditures, rent and security deposit for purchase of services is 18,8 billion TRY. When combined, these two account for 36.5 billion TRY. When this total amount of expenditure planned to be made in 2020 is reduced by 30 percent, a funding of 10,65 billion TRY can be created.
This funding created by reducing only the transportation expenditures and Public-Private Cooperation payments by 30 percent meets 4,582,616 minimum wages. If we consider that the quarantine days will continue for 4 months;
1,145,655 persons or households can be paid minimum wage for a period of 4 months.
Last word
In this period of outbreak that we are all living in, there is funding to ensure that the unemployed and immigrants can keep their heads above the water, albeit in minimum conditions, and to relieve them of their worries. Much more funding can be created with more detailed examinations and measures. Just as long as there is an intention and will to do this. (AGY/DB/SD)
