{"id":25639,"date":"2010-11-14T11:40:26","date_gmt":"2010-11-14T09:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=25639"},"modified":"2023-04-15T19:17:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T16:17:33","slug":"cafe-owners-protest-recent-tax-hike-on-alcohol-in-istanbul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/11\/14\/cafe-owners-protest-recent-tax-hike-on-alcohol-in-istanbul\/","title":{"rendered":"Cafe owners protest recent tax hike on alcohol in Istanbul"},"content":{"rendered":"
Members of the Beyo\u011flu Entertainment Venues Association gather in front of Galatasaray High School in Istanbul's Taksim district to protest a tax hike on alcohol. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINI\u015eIK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Members of the Beyo\u011flu Entertainment Venues Association protested Thursday the recent 30 percent tax hike on alcoholic beverages, claiming the government is using the national budget deficit and personal health as excuses to clampdown on alcohol.<\/p>\n

Gathering in front of the Galatasaray High School in Istanbul\u2019s Taksim district with posters saying, \u201cThe budget deficit cannot be covered with alcohol\u201d and \u201cWe are selling the most expensive alcohol in Europe,\u201d the association members said they were taking legal action over the special consumption tax hike that was implemented Oct. 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government\u2019s reason for this practice is the budget deficit, I wonder whether alcohol is a more special consumption material than automobiles, jewelry or antiques?\u201d asked Tarkan Konar, the head of the association.<\/p>\n

Emphasizing that cafe and restaurant owners are not responsible for the budget deficit, Konar told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News & Economic Review that loading more taxes on their businesses compared to other sectors is against the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Noting that public health is another excuse used by the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government, just as it was for the smoking ban, Konar said only authoritarian regimes think about the public\u2019s health more than the public itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people coming to such venues are over 18 and they can take responsibility for themselves. The government should not think about our health more than us,\u201d said Konar, whose cafe serves alcoholic beverages in Beyo\u011flu, where there are approximately 2,000 such venues.<\/p>\n

According to Konar, while some companies producing alcoholic beverages have reflected the tax rise in their prices, others cut from their profits so as not to affect their sales. \u201cThus, the prices you currently see on the shelves do not reflect the tax hike directly,\u201d said Konar.<\/p>\n

Association members said even though they are uncomfortable with the tax hike, restaurant and cafe owners have to include the increase on their menus, but this will cause a decrease in their customer numbers. \u201cEntertainment is not a luxury, it is a right according to the universal declaration of human rights. However, if I charge 10 Turkish Liras for a glass of beer, my customers will prefer to drink in their homes,\u201d Konar said.<\/p>\n

Stressing that an entertainment mentality addressing only the upper-middle class would create decadence, separation and hate in society, Konar said a measurement showing the country\u2019s level of welfare is the amount and quality of the time they spend outside their homes.<\/p>\n

Watching the protest, 21-year-old Ali Kerem \u00c7eliker said he couldn\u2019t understand why Turkey\u2019s budget deficit could not be surmounted, given the amount of taxes taken from the public. \u201cThe tax hike on alcoholic beverages was applied because the government wants to make people stay away from alcohol and smoking by using public pressure,\u201d \u00c7eliker said.<\/p>\n

Saying that the choice to drink or not drink should be left to individuals, \u00c7eliker said in this circumstance people are confronted by obstacles put up by the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Beyo\u011flu Entertainment Venues Association protested Thursday the recent 30 percent tax hike on alcoholic beverages, claiming the government is using the national budget deficit and personal health as excuses to clampdown on alcohol. Gathering in front of the Galatasaray High School in Istanbul\u2019s Taksim district with posters saying, \u201cThe budget deficit cannot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":66059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[846],"tags":[4275],"class_list":["post-25639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-budget-deficit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}