In April 2024, interest expenditure was around 114 billion lira. This figure rose by 129 percent to 260.6 billion lira. While in April last year, 15 lira out of every 100 lira in the budget went to interest payments, in April 2025 this figure rose to 23 lira.
COLLECTED FROM THE PUBLIC
In the first four months of 2025, 2.81 trillion lira in taxes was collected. Tax revenues increased by 53 percent compared to the same period last year. As of April, approximately 53.2 percent of tax collection, totalling 1.49 trillion lira came from VAT and Special Consumption Tax (SCT).
Revenues from Banking and Insurance Transactions Tax (BITT) levied on banking transactions such as loan interests, insurance premiums and foreign exchange purchases and sales reached 44.9 billion liras in April and 122 billion 971 million liras in January-April period. The BITT revenue, which was 93.3 billion liras in the first four months of last year, increased by 80 per cent in a year.
NO CUTS IN SPENDING
In the first four months of the year, 1.32 billion lira was spent on vehicle rentals. In January, vehicle rental costs were 185.7 million lira. This figure rose to 336.9 million TL in February, 416.1 million in March, and 382.2 million in April.
A total of 925.6 million lira was spent on aircraft rentals in the January–April period. Aircraft rental costs were 162.1 million lira in January, 221.2 million in February, 287.7 million in March, and 254.6 million in April.
Combined spending on vehicle and aircraft rentals reached 2.25 billion lira, up from 2.08 billion lira during the same period last year.
Last year, 1.25 billion lira was spent on printing and binding expenses between January and April.
CONTROVERSIAL WASTE
Expenditures on representation, publicity and hospitality, the most controversial item of waste, totalled 82.8 million liras in April. In the January-April period, this amount reached 267.8 million liras. In March 2024, when local elections were held, expenditures from this item reached 714.5 million liras. This decrease in expenditures justified the criticism of election propaganda.
PALACE DEVOURS RESOURCES
The biggest single spending from the discretionary fund known as Erdoğan’s “secret chest” and not subject to oversight was recorded in April. 1.64 billion lira was spent from the discretionary fund in April, totalling 4.96 billion lira in the first four months.
The Palace’s expenditure reached 5.36 billion lira in the same period. Thirty-two percent of the initial allocation was used between January and April. With an average monthly expenditure of 1.34 billion lira, the Palace spent an average of 31,000 lira per minute.
Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Bütçenin yüzde 23’ü faize gitti, published in BirGün newspaper on May 16, 2025.
