Turkey passes bill to tackle pandemic's impact

Turkey's parliament ratified a bill on April 16 that was prepared by the ruling AKP to alleviate the effects of the novel coronavirus on economic and social life.

The country has postponed rental payments for three months on several types of state-owned immovable properties.

Municipalities and their sub-institutions will also be able to postpone water bills for three months for private homes and companies.

Municipalities will also be able to provide financial support to natural and legal persons who have public transport certificates or postpone several types of payments to provide uninterrupted public transport services.

Annual advertisement and environment taxes of enterprises that have been forced to close as part of measures to contain the coronavirus will not be collected during this period.

Payments on student loans have also been postponed for three months, while those on some agricultural loans have been postponed until next year.

Travel agencies will not pay fees to their unions in 2020.

Some licenses, permissions and general assemblies have been extended for licensed warehouses, commercial ships, associations, cooperatives and unions.

The country has also canceled some local administrative elections.

Research and development and design support has been expanded.

If necessary, the treasury can support medical colleges and their subsidiaries.

Non-payment of services by the elderly and disabled at care centers has been extended for three months.

The country will provide support of 39.24 Turkish liras (about $5.70) per day to workers forced to take unpaid leave due to the coronavirus outbreak for three months.

Their general health insurance payments will also be...