News & Comment
An Islamıc Glance to the Budget of 2019

News

The budget law of 2019 is enacted in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) on 22 November 2018. With the budget proposal submitted by the Presidency, it is stated that 949 billion 25 million 615 thousand TL was allocated to public administrations within the scope of the general budget, 73 billion 771 million 848 thousand TL was allocated to special budget administrations and 6 billion 536 million 982 thousand TL appropriation was given to the regulatory and supervisory agencies. Source?

Comment

The budgetary draft law submitted to the parliament by the government as of November every year is accepted by voting after being opened for discussion in the General Assembly of the Parliament. As there are discussions made in the General Assembly about the details, there are also discussions about Turkey’s agenda. The budget negotiations this year have also witnessed harsh, fighting and abusive scenes among the representatives. As a consequence, the budgetary draft law of AKP which is providing the majority in the Parliament together with the help of its “rescuer” MHP is accepted with 335 affirmative votes.

The budget frame of Turkey is elaborated in three main sections; general budget administrations, special budgeted administrations and regulatory and supervisory administrations. Accordingly, the total amount of 2019 is 1.029.334.445.000 TL (194.214.000.000 $). Out of the total amount, 117.337.000.000 TL (22.139.000.000 $) is reserved for the interest expenses, 247.302.546.000 TL is reserved for personnel expenses. It is assumed that within the scope of the budget of 2019 there will be collected 966.672.787.000 TL (182.391.000.000 $) of tax yield and there will be a budget deficit of 62.661.658.000 TL (11.823.000.000 $)

Analysing the 2019 budget with an Islamic perspective, followings could be said.

1- In the democratic system, the bulk of the expenses depend on the tax yields. Above mentioned budget deficit are compensated from loan interests. According to the Islamic terms, taxes are not incomes of continuity. They are absolutely not collected from the poor and from those who are beneath the standard of living.

2- To the Islamic terms, there does not exist by no means any transaction of interests. So it is beside the point that there is an expense item of the state for interest and that it will be collected from the citizens, because, under any circumstances, interest is haram. Interest expenses took part in the budgets throughout the period of republic of Turkey. Up until now, there has been collected trillions liras from people for the interests and this amount has been given to both stationary and foreigner owners of the World Bank and IMF. While the citizens were groaning bitterly under the burden of interest, the bankers and the bloodsuckers enriched themselves and became the playground for the imperialists.

In addition to the expenses of interest, as of October 2018, 32 million citizens in Turkey were forced to become indebted. From November, the total amount of just the consumer credits is 550 million TL. The credits of the companies are not included.

3- When examining the expense items, within the Islamic Economic System, the spending like interest will not occur and the amount of the expenses will be extremely low. For example, the arranged budget for the Ministry of Treasury and Finance is about 419.8577.267.000 TL (79.218.000.000 $). Although there will be collection and calculation of the taxes in the Islamic State depending on special circumstances, the expenses will not even be 1% of the current expenses.

Also in the Islamic State, expense items such as Migration Management Presidency, European Union Presidency, National Lottery Administration and Capital Market Institution are not included. In short, with these budget figures prepared for 2019 and the expenditures of the Islamic State in one year, it can be thought that, except for the military expenditures and the costs for Jihad, it will be even less than 1/20 of the current figures. Consequently, there will be no need to collect tax from people.

4- There is no any implementation in the Islamic State to prepare an annual budget and submit it to the parliament for approval. The revenues of the Islamic State are determined by the Sharia, i.e., by Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw). Apart from these, it is not allowed to create the income item. Similarly, the types of expenditures that will be made by the state are determined by the Sharia too. According to the Islamic verdict, there could be no spending by no means on the areas which are forbidden. For this, a share of the state budget is inseparable. According to the Islamic law, it is not taxable for people to do jobs that are not necessary. However, based on the permanent income of the Islamic state, except for the tax, it is possible to spend money on non-essential areas if there is money in the state treasury.

5- The numbers and the interest incomes in the budget are the numbers which are except the collected taxes by the local authorities. For as much as, the municipalities have their own Environmental Cleaning and Estate Taxes which are apart from the general budget. The municipalities have their own income and expense budgets. İf the expenses of all the municipalities which are the half of the expense of the general budget are added, the taxes taken from the citizens are too much. The situations in other countries are not that different from Turkey. Therefore, the survival of the Ummah from this entire exaggerated taxes burden and the illicit items could only be by establishing the Islamic State and implementing the Islamic terms which will provide us an escape from the tax tyranny. May Allah grand us living in the shade of Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate), implemented with the ahkaam of Islam as soon as possible.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammed Hanefi Yağmur