Ministry of Finance to increase foreign departure fee by 10 times

The Ministry of Finance has initiated efforts to revise the foreign departure fee, currently at 150 Turkish liras, to a range between 1,000 and 1,750 Turkish liras.

In an effort to increase public revenue by eliminating many exemptions and tax breaks, Türkiye had announced the removal of the stock exchange transaction tax. However, while the stock exchange transaction tax was being removed, there have been preparations for an extraordinary increase in foreign departure fees imposed on Turkish citizens leaving Türkiye to go abroad.

A total of 1.3 billion Turkish liras was collected from foreign departure fees in 2023. In the January-April period of 2024, a revenue of 427 million Turkish liras was generated. Part of the foreign departure fees is transferred to the Housing Development Administration of Türkiye (TOKI).

The foreign departure fee, which was 15 Turkish liras in 2018, was increased to 50 Turkish liras in July 2019 and then to 150 Turkish liras in March 2022.

Individuals who can document that they have a residence permit abroad at the time of their departure, those involved in the carriage of cargo and passengers for commercial purposes in road, sea, air, and rail vehicles, and crew members who are actually on duty during departure are exempt from the fee, as well as children under the age of 7.