Bank debts of citizens in quake zone to be deferred - Treasury & Finance Minister

By News Center

Turkiye's Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati made statements in Sanliurfa, one of the cities hit by the earthquake.

Minister Nabati's statement is as follows.

"Unfortunately, we are facing one of the biggest earthquake disasters in the history of the country and the world. Over 6,000 of our citizens have died and 2,495 of our citizens have been discharged in Sanliurfa, 114 people are waiting in the emergency service, 231 people are hospitalized and 79 are in intensive care. The treatment of our injured citizens from Sanliurfa, Adiyaman, Gaziantep, and Hatay is carried out in our city. All of our hospitals are ready to take care of the injured from neighboring provinces. The number of demolished buildings is 19 and work continues on three of them. Two of them are in the center and one is in our Birecik District. We continue our work intensively. A total of 7,594 personnel are on duty. Mosques, schools, hostels, and dormitories in our city have been opened to the use of our citizens. 493 assembly areas have been created in our province. All requests of our citizens are responded to.

"Damage assessment studies were carried out on 4,727 buildings in our city. Other detection studies are in progress. On behalf of our nation, I would like to express my gratitude to our esteemed governor, our mayor, and all our public officials who work devotedly on the field. I would like to express my gratitude to the countries and international aid organizations that shared their messages of condolence and support on this difficult day. As the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, we take many measures to alleviate the problems experienced in the earthquake-affected areas.

"Our ministry is in contact with the relevant public institutions and organizations and meets the cash needs of the institutions. We deliver medicines, serums, vaccines and medical products, construction equipment to the region as soon as possible through our state supply office. Our banks and participating financial institutions continue their aid activities without interruption. We have taken the decision to postpone the payment of debts of our citizens who have difficulty paying their debts to banks.

"Our priority right now is to save lives. As soon as the earthquake happened, the TCIP extraordinary management center came into action. The first compensation payment was made less than 24 hours after the earthquake. Our team that we have assigned tomorrow will start their monitoring in all regions.

"We have extended the deadline for filing tax returns until August 15, 2023, and the deadline for paying taxes until August 31, 2023. We will provide additional facilities in loans. We will leave these days behind as soon as possible in unity and solidarity. I wish God's mercy on our citizens who passed away again, and a speedy recovery to our injured citizens."