The minimum pension was increased to 23 thousand 552 lira in the Turkish Grand National Assembly Commission - Last Minute

The Grand National Assembly of Turkey Planning and Budget Commission convened to discuss the 'Law Proposal on Amendments to Certain Laws and Decree Laws', which also includes the regulation regarding the increase of the minimum retirement pension from 20 thousand lira to 23 thousand 552 lira.

The Grand National Assembly of Turkey Planning and Budget Commission convened under the chairmanship of AK Party Samsun Deputy Mehmet Muş. Speaking after Muş opened the commission meeting, CHP Antalya Deputy Cavit Arı stated that the 16th, 17th and 18th articles in the proposal are related to national education and said, "While this issue is being discussed in the Plan and Budget Commission today, the National Education Commission will also meet at 15.00. The commission, which is the main responsible for these articles, will be in a meeting. Therefore, these issues should be discussed in the relevant commission. The Plan and Budget Commission holds discussions on every issue and the law proposals are passed from here." "But today there is a different situation. Therefore, I request that these articles be withdrawn from our commission and discussed in the relevant commission."

İYİ Party Samsun Deputy Erhan Usta said, "We are making shoddy laws. The proposal is not discussed in the main commission, bureaucrats sometimes come in different ways. According to the new system, the proposal should not come from the public or ministries, the MPs submit the bill, but that is a different story. We are constantly making laws in the sense of 'let's eliminate hesitation, let's get rid of wrong practices, let it be like this, let it be like that'. You are not the new government, you have been ruling this country for 25 years. You are managing it worse every day."

'WE ARBITRATE THE HIERARCHICAL BALANCE IN THE PUBLIC'

Then, AK Party Samsun Deputy Ersan Aksu, who was the first signatory on the proposal, informed the MPs. Aksu said, "With the 1st, 16th and 26th articles of our proposal, we strengthen the hierarchical balance and uniformity of titles in the public sector. With the amendment made in Article 68/B of the Civil Servants Law No. 657, we are increasing the seniority requirement to be appointed to the head of department with civil servant status and to managerial positions equivalent to these positions from 5 years to 10 years. At the same time, it is annexed to the Presidential Decree No. 3." We exclude the provincial and regional director positions in Table No. 2, which are not considered upper-level public administrators, from the appointment exceptions provided by the additional article 35 of the Decree Law No. 375. Thus, we ensure that the basic conditions and rank progression rules of Law No. 657 are applied in the appointment of provincial and regional managers, who are the highest level representatives in the provinces, and we introduce a regulation No. 6085 that is based on merit. "With our proposal, we are filling a gap in the Court of Accounts Law. We are concretizing the education and seniority requirements at the law level for appointments to the positions of prosecutors of the Court of Accounts. We are strengthening the legality audit mechanism in public financial management by requiring that the people to be appointed must be graduates of faculties such as law, political sciences and economics and have worked as public servants in financial, economic and legal fields for at least 10 years," he said.

'WE ARE INCREASING THE LOWEST PENSION PAYMENT TO 23 THOUSAND 552 LIRAS'

Noting that important regulations have been made regarding the personnel structure of PTT, Aksu said, "With the 22nd and 23rd articles of our proposal, we aim to put an end to the fragmented employment structure within PTT, excluding workers, and to employ personnel in administrative services. Personnel subject to Decree Law No. 399 will be able to switch to administrative service contracted status with the priority of their own demands, merit and seniority, and personnel who do not want to switch or will be outside their quota can be transferred to other public institutions and organizations by protecting their personal rights." With this regulation, it is aimed to ensure the uniformity of the personnel regime in PTT and to increase its efficiency by simplifying it. On the other hand, the difficult economic conditions that the world is going through and the conflict environment that has been going on for nearly a quarter of a century and has recently increased, directly affect our macroeconomic balances. As a requirement of our understanding of being the power of the nation, we are moving forward by taking measures to protect all sectors and all segments of the society, within the scope of the possibilities, with the regulation that closely concerns our retirees and beneficiaries. "We are increasing the minimum monthly payment amount of TL to 23 thousand 552 Turkish liras, taking into account the 17.76 percent inflation rate announced by TÜİK in the first six months of 2026," he said. Aksu added that since the AK Party came to power, pensions have increased 5.5 times excluding inflation and 12.5 times in dollar terms, and 5.1 million retirees will directly benefit from the current regulation.

Aksu stated that with the proposal, the budget transfers in the financial structure of the Social Security Institution (SGK) will be simplified and combined under a single budget item. Aksu said, "We are extending the duration of the manufacturing industry employment support programs, which are covered by the Unemployment Insurance Fund and carried out through the Ministry of Industry and Technology and KOSGEB, until December 31, 2028, which will end at the end of 2026. It is envisaged that a total of 188 billion TL will be used in the next 3 years for these supports alone. The tourism sector also needs support in this direction due to global instability in this period. We aim to be a lifeline for our tourism operators with the 10th article of our proposal. Fuel Global shocks in prices and the war situation in neighboring countries have led to a contraction in travel demand for our country. Tourism is a labor-intensive sector and cost pressures directly cause employment losses. As a matter of fact, the approximately 10 percent decrease in occupancy rates in the first months of the year was also reflected in employment. In order to prevent this loss from growing, accommodation facilities certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are informed to the SSI on the number of premium days per day. "We will provide insurance premium support of 116.67 TL, that is, approximately 3 thousand 500 TL per month for thirty days. With this model, which directly encourages employment, we are easing the burden of tourism professionals with an expenditure of 5.36 billion TL on approximately 1.7 million insured people," he said.

'WE ARBITRATE THE CYBER SECURITY DIRECTORATE'S ARCHITECTURE'

Citing the articles of the proposal regarding the Cyber Security Directorate, Aksu said, "With our bill, we are strengthening the legal and infrastructural architecture of our Cyber Security Directorate with the 19th, 24th and 25th articles of our proposal. We are gathering the powers such as cyber defense, internet domain name management, internet infrastructure control and judicial determination of communication via telecommunications, which were previously assigned to the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, the primary duty of which is the market regulator, to the Sibel Günay Directorate. In order to prevent duplicate investments, the powers within the BTK are We are transferring exclusive cyber security-oriented data centers, technical infrastructures and real estate to the Presidency. According to the impact analysis, approximately 30 billion TL of new infrastructure installation costs are saved. We also protect the rights of our qualified human resources using these systems and put their transition to the Cyber Security Presidency on a legal basis. With this bill, we are changing the financing model of cinema industry supports. Media service providers and digital internet platforms that provide conditional access are required to transfer 2 percent of their annual net sales to the revolving fund of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. "In addition, with the principle that those who feed on content contribute to production, we aim to return some of the revenues earned by the platforms from our country as a resource to Turkish content producers and filmmakers," he said. After Aksu's briefing, the meeting continues with the MPs' opinions and evaluations on the entire proposal.