Municipality: Lira's slide cost 10 billion lira to İstanbul's public transport system

Photo: IMM Press

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Because of the rapid depreciation of the Turkish lira, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) will have to spend an extra 10 billion lira (~648 million USD) to maintain public transport services, a municipal official said today (December 16).

"As the IMM, we had calculated the exchange rate of the Euro as 11.5 lira when we made our budget. Today it's 17 lira," IMM Secretary-General Can Akın Çağlar said at the meeting of the Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME).

"We had calculated an expenditure budget of 43.6 billion lira for 2022. Today, we are facing a burden of 65 billion lira to provide the same services," Çağlar remarked.

"While we have taken the risk of meeting the cost increases by subsidizing all public transportation by 5.5 billion lira annually, we need to provide a subsidy of 10 billion lira at today's rates. The most important basis for public service is the sustainability of the service."

The UKOME rejected a proposal by Çağlar to increase public transport fares by 36.13 percent. (EMK/VK)