Industrialists to no longer fund Turkey broadcaster TRT

By Can Erozden, Merve Ozlem Cakır and Mehtap Yilmaz

ANKARA

Turkish industrialists will no longer have to contribute funds to the state broadcaster TRT, according to Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Faruk Ozlu on Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference in capital Ankara, Ozlu said: "The industrialists paid 344.2 million liras [$95.95 million] to TRT in 2015. We are going to lift that condition on industrialists to pay their share to the broadcaster."

According to the TRT Revenues Law from 1984, all electricity consumers in Turkey contribute 2 percent of their bills to TRT, which runs radio and television channels in several languages. The 2 percent deductions are made as part of the monthly electricity bill.

Industrialists, especially those in the manufacturing industry used to end up paying millions to TRT as part of their huge electricity bills but now they would be exempted from doing so, according to the minister.

Instead of industrialists, TRT will now get a portion of its funds from Turkey’s national lottery revenues, the minister said.

"Revenues from the lottery, not from our industrialists, will support TRT," he said.

Lottery, national lottery tickets and sports betting are legal and popular in Turkey just like in other parts of the world. New year's national lottery prize was worth 60 million Turkish liras ($16.7 million).

The National Lottery Directorate currently offers six different lottery games, with total revenues from ticket sales and other sources in 2015 reaching 2.5 billion liras ($880 million).

Ozlu also the property tax imposed on industrial zones would be lifted as well.

"The property tax share of organized industrial zones is 360 million liras ($100.2 million) per year. We are going to lift that too," he said.