3.97 trillion lira allocated to interest payments in 2027 budget; tax revenue target set at 19.9 trillion

The government unveiled the 2027 budget to the public: total expenditure of 27 trillion 276 billion lira against projected revenue of 23 trillion 408 billion lira; the gap amounts to a deficit of 3 trillion 868 billion lira. The TBMM Budget and Planning Commission discussions will begin on Wednesday, October 21. Sözcü Gazette compiled the figures.

The most striking budget item is interest payments: 3 trillion 975 billion lira has been allocated for domestic and foreign debt interest. This figure equals 14.6 percent of total expenditure. For comparison, the share allocated to interest in the 2025 budget was 11.8 percent; a jump of nearly four percentage points in two years shows how debt servicing is squeezing the budget.

On the revenue side, 19 trillion 905 billion lira is planned to come from taxes. By line item: VAT 5 trillion 681 billion, income tax 5 trillion 533 billion, excise tax 3 trillion 284 billion, corporate tax 2 trillion 223 billion lira. In practical terms: the single-year VAT target from every supermarket checkout in Istanbul exceeds three times Turkey's annual defense budget.

Personnel expenditures set at 7 trillion 117 billion, current transfers at 10 trillion 240 billion, and education and health combined at 8.3 trillion lira. Capital investments remain at 1 trillion 855 billion lira.

Opposition parties, citing the record size of the interest line item and the revenue-expenditure gap, argue that new indirect tax increases are on the way; the Treasury and Finance Ministry added no supplementary explanation to the budget text.