Persecution of gov't opponents reaches new heights
A municipality from the government party has removed the signboards of a school the government associates with its opponents and the anti-government Taraf newspaper has been ordered by a Finance Ministry unit to pay a TL 5.5-million tax fine, in what many see as increased attempts to repress the opponents of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.
Taraf on Wednesday announced that it had been fined TL 5.5 million by the Tax Inspection Council Administration of the Finance Ministry over its scrap paper sales to paper mills. The daily wrote that other newspapers also engage in the sale of scrap paper, but Taraf has been the only one given a fine for the transaction.
The daily wrote that tax inspector Abdullah Kiraz closed in on all the past account movements of Taraf and its owner Alkım Publishing in 2012. The investigation lasted 14 months, and the audit revealed no irregularities in the accounts of Alkım Publishing and Taraf. According to the report, the inspector started examining the sale of scrap paper -- the sale of unsold newspapers to paper mills for recycling -- carried out by Taraf. In February of this year, the Tax Inspection Council Administration issued the TL 5.5-million fine. Taraf has sued the Finance Ministry over the fine, arguing that it has been issued illegally.
However, the fine wasn't the end of it, the daily reported. Three months after the issuance of the tax fine, the Finance Ministry's Tax Inspection Council announced that it will be examining Taraf accounts once again. Deputy tax inspector Elif Mutlu on June 20 announced that all the newspaper's 2013 and 2014 accounts will be fully reviewed as per a decision taken by the Tax Inspection Council on June 12. Taraf also claimed it had information to suggest that the audit had been ordered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The daily also noted that companies owned by AK Party ministers and pro-government newspapers are immune to tax audits. It noted that the amount of taxes paid by Babacan Textiles, a business friendly with the government that has grown significantly in the past 10 years, and the results of audits carried out by tax inspectors on its accounts have remained a secret.
It also noted that it wasn't known if a business owned by Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek's brother, Selahattin Şimşek, who was implicated in a corruption scandal regarding the İzmir Port, had been inspected by the Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK).
Repeating the allegations that government-controlled newspapers and television networks Sabah, ATV, Star, Yeni Şafak and Kanal A were bought with $630 million paid by businesses close to the government in return for public tenders, Taraf said the companies that have contributed to the money pool to buy the media establishments were largely immune to tax inspections or fines, in spite of voice recordings leaked earlier this year in which some of the owners of this businesses confess to irregular transactions.
The daily also noted that it wasn't clear whether any of the companies owned by Reza Zarrab, an Iranian businessman who was detained on Dec. 17, 2013, as part of an operation that came out of a corruption investigation, had been inspected by the Finance Ministry. It also noted that there was no evidence to suggest that any of the companies owned by former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, who allegedly accepted a watch worth 300,000 Swiss francs from Zarrab, has been subject to a tax audit.
In a similar development, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality on Wednesday removed the signboards of the Fem dershane (private exam preparatory school) operating in İstanbul's Mecidiyeköy district on the grounds that the school had violated the municipality's advertising regulations.
The Fem prep schools are close to the faith-based Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Erdoğan has accused the Hizmet movement of being behind a massive corruption investigation into his government, which he claimed was a coup attempt to overthrow his AK Party, although he has not been able to produce any evidence to back his claims.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-351281-persecution-of-govt-opponents-reaches-new-heights.html
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