Our Information Note on the postponement of amounts payable by tourism facilities located on public land as another COVID-19 measure has been published.

1. INTRODUCTION

Law No. 7226 on the Amendment of Certain Laws (the “Law”) has entered into force following its publication in the Official Gazette (repeating) dated 26 March 2020 and numbered 31080. The Law introduces certain measures pertaining to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Article 42 of the Law introduces an additional provision to Law No. 4706 on the Amendment of the Law on the Utilisation of Immovable Property of the Treasury and Value Added Tax[1] (the “Law No. 4706”) which allows the interest-free postponement of certain payments for a period of 6 months.

2. REGULATIONS OF THE LAW

By introducing an additional provision to Law No. 4706, this amendment postpones certain payments of operators and investors of tourism facilities that are located on public land. Accordingly, regardless of whether a right of easement or usage right has been established or granted (as the case may be) with respect to the public land provided for the construction of a tourism facility, the payment periods of (i) rental,  definite authorisation (kesin izin), definite allocation (kesin tahsis), right of easement, usage right, beneficial occupancy fees or revenue shares of tourism facility operators and investors certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, payable between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2020; and (ii) compensation payments (ecrimisil) arising from the unauthorised use of Treasury immovables by tourism facility operators and investors certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and payable between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2020, have been postponed for 6 months without the need for a separate application in this regard. Such payments will not bear any interest during the postponement period and will therefore be paid without any penalty or interest.  

The Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation has been authorised to determine the principles and procedures with respect to the implementation of the abovementioned provision.

An important aspect of this new regulation is that all land usage and occupancy fees have been postponed for public land provided for the construction of tourism facilities. One aspect to highlight is the condition that the operators and investors of tourism facilities must be certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in order to be able to benefit from such regulation.

3. CONCLUSION

The amendment constitutes a governmental measure intended to mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism sector.