What the Budget Says

Negotiations for the 2024 budget have started in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. However, the fact that society's interest in this important issue is much less than it should be opens the door for the Political Power to be relieved of its accountability. The most important component of the development process of sovereignty belonging to the people throughout history is the concept of "Budget Right", which means that the tax-paying public has a say in where the collected money will be spent. We can say that the authority of parliaments to represent the people is transformed into practice through the law-making activity within the scope of the sovereignty that belongs to the people. The most important dimension of the legislative activity is the enactment of the "Budget Law" in accordance with the budget right. Each law, which is the outcome of legislative activity, represents the implementation of the political power's preferences in public policy processes. Every law reflects a political choice. The law that most clearly reflects the preferences of the political power in this regard is the budget law.

The budget law is defined as the "Central Government Budget Law" because it shows the estimated revenues and expenses of the central government. Although the budgets of local governments are separate, the Central Government Budget Law closely concerns local governments as it includes the share allocated to local governments from the general budget. The lack of interest in the budget issue is due to the fact that the public sees the budget as a purely technical issue; This is because he is unaware of how much the budget will affect his life and his rights over the budget. For this reason, I will choose to focus on issues other than the technical details of the budget in my article.

What makes the budget important is the proportional relationship between budget items rather than the budget size. Because this proportional relationship shows the policy preferences of a government. In fact, public policy is, in a sense, a matter of determining priorities. The whole issue is whether or not the duty of the governments responsible for determining these priorities is well perceived by the society. We can briefly explain this as follows: A plumbing problem has arisen in your home. You called and called the plumber. He came and solved the problem and left. You have purchased a service here. If the problem solved does not recur again, you call the same plumber the next time the problem arises. If for some reason you are not satisfied with the service you received (the plumber did not work cleanly or did not solve the problem correctly and caused other problems), you will start receiving service from another plumber.

The situation is the same for governments that have the duty and responsibility of managing the political organization we call the state. By voting, the people bring a government into power to solve social problems (dirty jobs). If the government is successful in solving these problems, it will be re-elected. What is required for this (in order for the government to be re-elected) is the existence of a people with average education and intelligence level who have the ability to evaluate. Just as the plumber you call to your home cannot interfere with your lifestyle and life choices, governments should not enter into areas that are not their duty. The text of agreement and compromise that provides assurance to citizens on this issue is the constitution. If a government comes out and says "I do not recognize the constitution", this is a coup environment rather than a known peace environment.

Just as when you pay the plumber the money and the plumber is not satisfied with the agreed-upon fee and says "you gave me little money, I'm going to take this silver cutlery with me when I leave", this constitutes tyranny and usurpation. In the same way, governments' use of laws and state power for material gain is usurpation of sovereignty and budgetary rights. Budget right is a dimension of sovereignty. Because the cost of the state providing the public services expected from it is covered by the taxes paid by the public. An important question arises here; What if people don't know about the taxes they pay?

The fact that the people are unaware of the taxes they pay shows the fact that the basis of the nation-state structures, founded on civic awareness and governed democratically by the Republic, is not sufficiently understood by the citizens and therefore not embraced sufficiently. If we go back to our example again: If the plumber says, "Don't bother, I have a relative at the bank where you have a bank account, I will collect the fee from your account" or "I know someone at the Ministry of Finance, we will deduct it from your salary", this situation will seem quite absurd to you in many respects. . But the state collects value added tax, special consumption tax, etc. from purchased goods and services. This situation does not seem strange to anyone when we collect taxes and deduct income tax from the salaries before they are received by you. You know your salary clearly, you know the goods and services you buy and the price you pay. In fact, what happens is quite similar in terms of the way it occurs.

If indirect taxes (that is, taxes that you often don't realize you are paying) are higher than direct taxes in a country, politicians in that country should definitely, I would say, it is unreliable and I would never think there is any margin of error in it. Because in a country, when people are aware that they pay taxes, they protect their budget rights. You take the money out of your pocket and give it to the plumber who comes to your house. Therefore, accuracy and cleanliness of the work done are important to you. If it is a top-notch plumber in a very luxurious neighborhood, you can use a credit card at most. But if you know a little about business, you will have the right to say, "Master, pay attention to this, do this and that." But when you are the one paying for the government, you never think of holding the government accountable. If governments have no concern about changing this order, know that they are definitely involved in wrong things and be sure that they are deceiving you.

Let's come to the 2024 Central Government Budget Law proposal. The tax revenue to be obtained for 2024 is predicted to be 8 trillion 335 billion TL. While 2 trillion 521 billion TL of this is "taxes on income and earnings", "domestic goods and services taxes" are envisaged to be 3 trillion 415 billion TL. Considering that the taxes deducted from the salaries of all employees are accepted here as income and earnings, it is possible to say that the burden of direct taxes falls on the shoulders of the employees. In addition, I would also like it to be understood how little tax is paid by parasites who earn a lot but find a way to show little income and live like kings. Estimating a revenue of 23 billion 755 million TL from traffic fines in the 2024 budget can be interpreted as keeping low an item that would easily increase several times if desired. Because the income obtained from fines is an item that the citizen pays directly and the citizen is aware of what he pays. In other words, it is necessary not to wake up the citizens (!).

Without going into too much detail, the approximate values I have given show that the share of indirect taxes in tax revenues remains in the range of 65-70% in the 2024 budget, as it has been until today. This rate is a rate that destroys society's awareness of protecting the taxes it pays. It is possible to make inferences about the government's policy preference by looking at the shares allocated to institutions from the budget. It's all about the citizen's interest in where his money is spent. The first thing a government that wants to do to ensure this interest should do is to make citizens aware of the taxes they pay. For example, the employee may be asked to deposit their salaries into the account without deducting their salaries and pay the employee's taxes within a month. Or, at the end of the year, each employee can be notified, upon signature, of the amount paid as income tax. By taxing income earners who are parasitically attached to society, more income can be generated and resources can be created for science, technology and development. For these, governments must first be sincere in raising the awareness of citizens.

It would change a lot in the country if people who spend their time in the market or supermarket to buy products for a few cents cheaper, let alone being more sensitive about the government, which fulfills its responsibility to govern the state with the taxes they pay, show the same sensitivity. It would be nothing more than naive to expect an easy-going and ready-made society, which is used to consuming everything as a pill, to be curious about what is behind what is offered to it. I can't do more than wish a good night's sleep to those who say "I don't care, I don't like politics" regarding the budget negotiations, but still, I have reserved pages 53 and 54 of the 2024 budget for you so that you can do a favor and have an idea about your future. On these pages, you can see how much funding has been allocated for each subject for 2024 and the total budget size at the bottom. If you want to be fooled by the rhetoric, never mind, don't disturb your good sleep...