Amendment To The Communique Decree No: 32 On The Protection Of The Value Of The Turkish Currency

As is known, since 2018, in order to protect the value of the Turkish Currency, the Communique on Decree No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of the Turkish Currency (“Communique No. 32”) has been amended and contracts denominated in foreign currency or indexed to foreign currency have been restricted or prohibited. 

One of these contracts is the sale of movable property contracts. Most recently, with the amendment to the Communique No. 32 on April 19, 2022, the payment of the contract price in foreign currency was prohibited in the sale of movable property contracts to be concluded between Turkish residents. 

In the Communique Amending the Communique on the Decree No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency (“Communique”) published in the Official Gazette dated February 28, 2024, exemptions are provided for (i) certain payments and (ii) retroactive obligations to be determined in foreign currency in the sale of movable property contracts:

1. Payment obligations within the scope of performance of the sale of movable property contracts concluded before April 19, 2022, regarding negotiable instruments in foreign currency circulated before April 19, 2022, 

2. Payment obligations within the scope of invoices issued before April 19, 2022,

3. Transactions of the precious metals and gemstones dominated in foreign currency on the Borsa Istanbul Precious Metals and Precious Stones Market and payment obligations regarding the barter of these transactions, 

4. Payment obligations within the scope of sale of movable property contracts for exports to be carried out through foreign trade capital companies or sectoral foreign trade companies based on intermediary export contracts and exports to be carried out through export consortium and e-export consortium status companies, 

5. Payment obligations within the scope of sale of movable property contracts pertaining the delivery of goods subject to customs declaration, including the sale and delivery of imported goods, transit and customs warehousing regimes, as well as temporary storage and free zone provisions, 

6. Payment obligations of the companies operating in free zones and foreign trade transactions regarding the sale of movable property contracts related to the delivery of goods have been included in the exemption.

While the new amendments mentioned above 1, 2, 3 is effective as of April 21, 2022, retroactively; the provisions 4, 5, 6 is effective as of February 28, 2024. 

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding above matters.