Turkey raises departure fee by over 200 per cent to boost tax revenue

Istanbul: Turkey increased the departure fee for Turkish citizens flying to international destinations by 233 per cent on Monday to enhance tax revenue.

According to the Turkish Revenue Administration, citizens traveling abroad on international flights now pay 500 Turkish liras (14.89 US dollars) for the exit tax stamp starting at midnight.

To prevent potential inconveniences at border crossings, the administration has allowed travelers to make the fee payments in advance and introduced an online option, Xinhua news agency reported.

The tax package, which includes raising the departure fee from 150 liras to 500 liras, was previously approved by the parliament. The fee was 50 liras between 2019 and 2022 and was increased to 150 liras in March 2022.

Press reports indicate that 1.31 billion liras (39 million dollars) were collected from departure fees in 2023.