In its report, Bugün said 1.6 million people did not take advantage of a proposed debt restructuring opportunity as part of what is called the “sack law,” and they are now being chased by the SGK for the repayment of their outstanding debt. The sack law was passed in Parliament and started to be enforced -- in late February through the end of May -- following President Abdullah Gül’s approval.

The sack law is a term commonly used to describe a package of unrelated revisions to laws that are lumped together for the purpose of fast-tracking legislative changes. It enabled taxpayers to restructure all their taxes and tax fines outstanding as of Dec. 31 of last year, as well as all unpaid social security premiums.

For those applicants, the new amounts were calculated according to monthly changes in the consumer price index (CPI) and the producer price index (PPI). If those 1.6 million people had also applied to have their debt restructured as part of the law, they would have been allowed to pay TL 5.5 billion less. As they did not, according to the newspaper, they now face a hefty bill from a state body that is determined to collect those receivables.

The daily’s report also featured SGK President Emin Zararsız’s view. He was quoted as saying that the institution will refer the indebted to the court of the bailiff when necessary. Bugün said the amount the SGK will demand will even exceed the present TL 19.5 billion since the indebted will also be required to pay interest that will accrue until the time the court issues its decisions.

According to Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, 5 million taxpayers have applied to have TL 58.3 billion ($36.4 billion) in outstanding taxes and social security premiums restructured as part of the sack law, and the widely held expectation is that the government’s related extra tax revenue will exceed $20 billion.

Because the money to be collected was not included in this year’s budget, the expected tax revenue will be used to reduce the country’s public debt and for investments in infrastructure, research and development (R&D) and education.