Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday announced plans to remove two fixed payments from electricity bills in a bid to help consumers amid hiking rates, T24 news site reported.
The government will remove a fixed 2 percent payment on electricity bills for the funding of state-run TRT broadcaster and another 1 percent payment levied for outstanding energy costs, the Turkish president said following a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
The move arrives as opinion polls ahead of elections scheduled for 2023 show Erdoğan’s approval rating in decline as the country grapples with nearly 20 percent inflation rate, with recent hikes in staples such as food and gas.
Inflation in the country is spiking to the highest levels since early 2019 due to a global increase in prices and after the central bank cut interest rates for two successive months even as emerging market peers tightened monetary policy.
Reuters last week reported that Ankara was preparing a fiscal support package to help lower-income households with measures such as lifting the minimum wage, relief on energy costs and raising salaries for some civil servants, citing a Turkish officials.
“By neither disrupting the balances of firms in the energy sector nor victimising our citizens, we will keep managing this global energy crisis,” Erdoğan said.
The Turkish president also said that his government had already subsidised some energy costs.