CHP’s Ömer Fethi Gürer: ‘Farmers’ loan debt increased by 75 percent in 1 year’ – Last Minute Economy News

While citizens cannot afford the high prices of fruits and vegetables in the market, the farmers who produce these products are in debt.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) Niğde Deputy and Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Affairs Commission Member Ömer Fethi Gürer emphasized that the agricultural sector’s loan debts to banks increased by 75 percent in one year and that farmers are trying to produce by borrowing.

CHP’s Gürer also revealed that agricultural supports are insufficient with his diesel fuel calculations. According to Gürer’s calculation, it was revealed that the farmer paid 3 times the amount of diesel support he received as tax.

FARMER’S DEBT TO BANKS REACHED 637 BILLION 438 MILLION TL

Gürer from CHP said, “While the debt of the agricultural sector to banks was 363 billion 395 million TL in February 2023, this figure increased by 75 percent to 637 billion 438 million TL in the same month of 2024. The amount of non-performing loans of the agricultural sector is 2 billion 262 million.” “It was realized in TL,” he said.

BORROWING CONTINUES DESPITE THE HIGH INTEREST RATE

Stating that there has been a significant increase in the loan interest used by farmers as a result of the determined interest policies, Gürer said, “Farmers are looking for solutions to stay in production. For this reason, despite the increasing interest rates of banks, they are forced to use loans with high interest rates. The farmer, who starts the production process by borrowing money due to high interest rates and increasing input costs, finds himself in a dead end as a result of not getting the yield he expects from the product or the product not finding value. As a result, he moves away from production,” he said.

FARMERS ARE NOT GIVEN THE SUPPORT THEY DESERVE

Underlining that according to Article 21 of the Agricultural Law, farmers should be supported at least 1 percent of the national income, Gürer said, “The debt of our farmers to banks is 637 billion TL. However, the amount of support specified in the law to be given to our farmers is 411 billion TL for 2024, and the given amount is 91 billion TL. Unfortunately, our farmers are not given the support amounts specified in the law. “The amounts specified in this law were never given during the AKP government,” he said.

3 TIMES OF THE FUEL SUPPORT IS TAKEN BACK AS TAX

Gürer continued his words by criticizing the AKP government’s support policies for farmers with a concrete example through diesel fuel support.

“It was stated that the amount of diesel support to be given to our farmers in 2024 will be 16.1 billion TL. The annual average amount of diesel fuel used in agriculture is 3 billion liters. In other words, the amount of diesel used in agriculture in a year at current prices (43 TL) is 129 billion TL. Of this amount, 26.5 billion TL is SCT and 17.1 billion TL is VAT, making the total tax amount 43.6 billion TL. The tax on diesel fuel received by farmers corresponds to 47.8 percent of the total agricultural support amount given to farmers. While a total of 91.1 billion support is expected to be given to farmers in 2024, 43.6 billion tax will be collected only from the diesel fuel used by farmers. In addition, approximately 3 times the diesel support to be given to farmers will be taken back from the farmers as taxes.”