At the UKOME meeting of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, a 40% increase was achieved in transport. After this hike, the AK party took action and proposed to the IMM Assembly to exempt the students from the hike. In parliament, this proposal was accepted with the votes of the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party. Will this offer be valid or approved? İBB President Ekrem İmamoğlu also announced that he would veto it.
Tevfik Göksu, deputy chairman of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Council group of the AK party, made a statement to CNN Türk correspondent Emrah Çakmak.
Goksu said: UKOME makes price adjustments and regulations in public transport. At the last UKOME meeting, the Metropolitan Municipality had previously requested an increase at different rates. At UKOME, these were rejected. In the last 40%, a 40% increase has been made to public transport. Of course, when there was a 40% increase in public transport, we thought it would create a heavy burden, especially for students.
As we know from time to time the commitments of the president of the IMM and the CHP concerning the students in this public transport, we said to ourselves: “If we make such an offer, they will say yes. We said, “Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, let’s break through and take action to exempt children and students from this 40% increase in public transport. ” Why ? for…
“THIS IS NOT A VERY LARGE NUMBER”
If IMM wants to help children, if it wants to help students, if it wants to serve young people, because this number is not huge. For example, we could have said… “Don’t use this on students.” When we said “don’t use this”, IETT would have lost. “Let the IETT get this money, but not from the student, but from the metropolitan municipality”, so that the IETT does not go bankrupt and the IETT does not suffer any institutional damage. Who will give you this permission, the Assembly will give it. As a parliament, we give you that permission.
“THEY WILL FOCUS ON SUCCESS, NOT TICKET PRICE”
And we brought the Assembly. We said: “This is a request for a 40% increase for students”. You pay that money. This money is not even one thousandth of your budget. But in a year our students in Istanbul won’t have around 500 million dollars in their pockets. This will be a great opportunity for our students and their parents. Because they will focus on success, not the price of the ticket they use on public transport, they will focus on the future. Families will focus on other things, not their children’s ticket money.
“ONE IN A THOUSAND FOR THEM”
Just as our state currently subsidizes natural gas and subsidizes electricity, we are Turkey together as a society. We will evolve together, we will be happy together. We cry together. So come together… There is a global fluctuation right now. In this global fluctuation, our government makes every sacrifice to minimize the reflection of this economic fluctuation on society. Let us also make sacrifices. 460 million in your budget means nothing. For them, it’s one in a thousand. A figure that means nothing in terms of its economy and metropolitan financial performance.
“NOW IS TIME TO FACE THE TRUTH”
Give that authority, you pay that money, and our children will have that money in their pockets. You will make good promises for the city. Now is the time to face the truth. truth for the CHP. You agree to download it while you have no bag on your back. There you go… We said something very simple. This number means nothing to IMM. He can implement this decision on Monday.
There were 700,000 people using subscriptions, 790,000 people using discount cards. These are official figures. When you divide them into days, the result is 463,000. In other words, these 790,000 students will benefit differently. What we’re saying is don’t apply that 40% on student subscriptions or discount cards. You subsidize that 40%. There is an institution whose permission you must obtain. Parliament… Parliament has given you this power. Come in.
HOW WILL THE PROCESS WORK? WHAT IF THE PRESIDENT OF THE IMM VETO?
If the IMM president vetoes it, we’ll have it again next month. When we pass again the next month, it must now apply within 7 days. If it does not come into effect this month and vetoes it, we will adopt the decision as an insistent decision next month. After that, you need to apply it.
IMM thinks… There is an overall fluctuation. Along with this global fluctuation, there is an economic fluctuation. He wants to take advantage of this economic fluctuation. He thinks… “If I do it these days, they’ll know from the government anyhow.” said. For example, he says, “the fuel has gone up so much.” So what percentage of your fuel cost on public transport is that? About 18 percent. As if you think the total cost of IETT is fuel oil. Ticket prices are tracked on fuel.
“18 PERCENT EFFECT ON FUEL”
When you take all the cost calculations you use on public transport, the effect of fuel on your costs is 18%. We are already making raise offers by calculating the 18 and UKOME by calculating the 18 and the 30. I regret to express that the Metropolitan Municipality is trying to be opportunistic. Otherwise, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality can easily afford it. I really think that the President of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality should not see this too much for our students in the presence of Istanbulites. And I want our youth to provide that convenience.
As AK party and MHP, we have fulfilled our responsibility as People’s Alliance. We have offered this opportunity to our young people and our children. We want our children to occupy themselves with success, not with ticket money.
DOES IETT HARM?
The IETT is already a constantly losing institution. IMM is already constantly subsidizing it. It’s something different. It’s a matter of organization. It’s about management style. Many IMM institutions go bankrupt. In an understanding that IMM has created with its management philosophy and management skills, the metropolitan municipality fails in many institutions. This is another thing. If you say IETT… IETT is an institution constantly subsidized by the Metropolitan Municipality. Despite this, we say “yes” without rejecting all requests from the IETT. Why? It is a very important institution. This institution should continue in a stable manner. But right now the most extreme numbers are 3.9 billion in 2021 debt. That means there is a problem with management. He has no debt to date. İSKİ, who did not borrow a penny, had a debt of around 5 billion lira. Why did IMM double its debt? These are all questions to ask yourself. When you look at all this, the subsidy we will give to all our students in Istanbul on public transport is too small to compare to these.
HOW WILL IT BE EFFECTIVE IN MARMARAY IF THERE IS THIS DISCOUNT?
I asked the minister this question. The expression used by our honorable minister in regard to me was the following; “No economic burden will come to the Metropolitan Municipality via Marmaray in this regard. We are ready to deal with it,” he said.