ANKARA: Turkey plans to increase defence spending by $2.2 billion (Dh8 billion) under a new draft law, the finance minister said on Wednesday, as Ankara aims to modernise its military and increase its power.
Under the proposed law, Turkey will allocate an additional 8 billion lira ($2.2 billion) of existing tax revenues towards the defence industry, Finance Minister Naci Agbal said at a presentation in Ankara, where the government announced an annual update to its medium-term economic programme.
“It is a priority to increase the deterrent power of the Turkish Armed Forces, to meet the need for modernisation urgently and to meet the costs of domestic and foreign security operations,” Agbal said.
Turkey, which is fighting a three-decade insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast, fears that the Iraqi referendum would inflame separatist tension at home. The military has also been active in Syria. Last year Turkey-backed rebels swept Daesh from the border with Syria.
The government will increase the financial sector’s corporate tax rate by 2 percentage points to 22 per cent and raise the motor vehicle tax on passenger cars by 40 per cent, Agbal said.
