The municipalities with SGK debts have undergone seizure proceedings.

The Social Security Institution (SGK) initiated seizure proceedings last month against the metropolitan municipalities of Ankara, Istanbul, Adana, Izmir, Mersin, and Şişli Municipality in Istanbul due to their overdue debts. The opposition criticized the situation, emphasizing that a significant portion of the debt originated from municipalities that were under the management of the AK Party for many years.

After the last Economic Coordination Board (EKK) meeting of this year, Minister of Labor Işıkhan answered questions from journalists regarding the issue.

SGK DEBTS REACHED 160 BILLION LIRA

In response to a question about the municipalities' premium debts, Minister Işıkhan stated that the SGK debts of municipalities, which were 96 billion lira since the March 31 elections, have now reached 160 billion lira.

Pointing out that interest accrues daily on unpaid insurance premiums, Işıkhan said, "We are approaching all our municipalities equally, and we are trying to collect SGK premiums without any party discrimination."

KÜÇÜKÇEKMECE MUNICIPALITY PAID ITS DEBT WITH REAL ESTATE

Minister Işıkhan stated that they accepted the real estate offer in exchange for Küçükçekmece Municipality's debt of 1 billion 65 million lira and that they have completed the collection. Işıkhan continued his remarks: "We do not look at this municipality or that municipality. I am the minister of 85 million people. One of my most important goals is to ensure that our municipalities pay their premium debts to SGK. We had announced the first 10 municipalities with debts exceeding 1 billion. Of course, we also carried out the seizure process here. However, we need to evaluate the steps we took earlier."

"WE CARRIED OUT SEIZURE PROCEEDINGS"

Minister Işıkhan stated, "We reached out, issued payment orders, and despite our SGK provincial directors in 81 provinces communicating directly with these municipalities, there were still municipalities that did not pay their debts." He used the following expressions: "Especially our Adana and Mersin Metropolitan Municipalities, we carried out seizure proceedings based on the authority granted to us by the law and regulations by placing seizures on bank deposit accounts and using other methods. Furthermore, as you know, a Presidential Decree was published. We will now collect the premium debts of municipalities and their affiliates at the source. Since we will collect at the source, there will be no need for such a process anymore. I want to emphasize this particularly."