The omnibus bill has been approved by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The long-awaited package has been accepted, and its provisions include measures to assist victims of three earthquakes that occurred this year and affected seven provinces. One article in the bill provides aid to those harmed by the quakes. Another provision allows contracts between electronic communications providers and financial institutions and their customers to be concluded electronically. The bill also includes measures aimed at strengthening creditors’ collection options and encouraging payment of bounced checks.
What Provisions Are Included in the Approved Omnibus Bill?
What Provisions Are Included in the Approved Omnibus Bill? The omnibus bill presented to and approved by the Grand National Assembly contains the following key measures. The items brought before the Assembly and passed are as follows.
- With the proposed changes to certain laws and to Decree Law No. 399, the exemption currently granted to some public banks and their subsidiaries and affiliates would be extended to Vakıf Gayrimenkul Yatırım Ortaklığı A.Ş.
- Real estate investment trusts operating under the Capital Markets Law that are affiliated with Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası would be exempt from the Public Procurement Law.
- A proposal has been submitted to address the suffering of citizens affected by three earthquakes in the provinces of Manisa, Elazığ, Malatya, Diyarbakır, Adıyaman, Tunceli and Van. The proposal aims to provide support to eligible disaster victims who own homes, barns or workplaces that were identified by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization inspection teams as destroyed or suffering heavy or moderate damage.
- An amendment to the Law on the Evaluation of Periods Spent Abroad by Turkish Citizens for Social Security Purposes grants new rights to citizens living outside Turkey. The addition prevents short-term compulsory work abroad—while remaining within compulsory insurance—from causing loss of monthly pensions or cutting already paid pensions by exempting these short-term activities from insurance premium payments under certain conditions.
- Under the proposal, citizens working within this scope could retain their pension entitlements, and pension payments to beneficiaries would continue without interruption. The types of short-term work subject to this provision will be determined by regulation.
- Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the limit for special series domestic government debt securities that can be issued to meet additional financing needs of public institutions and public capital banks during the fiscal year may be increased for 2020. The limit set in the Central Government Budget Law can be raised for 2020 by up to 5% of the initial appropriations specified in the related law.
- The bill adds a temporary article to the Law on the Restoration, Preservation and Sustainable Use of Worn Historical and Cultural Immovable Properties.
- The proposal clarifies the form of contracts between banks and customers as related to banks’ fields of activity under the Banking Law.
- Contracts may be concluded in written form or at a distance via remote communication tools; whether or not parties are physically distant, the written form required by the legislation may be fulfilled through information or electronic communication devices that enable customer identity verification.
- The arrangement also extends to contractual provisions under the Law on Bank Cards and Credit Cards.
- In this way, when establishing a first-time contractual relationship between banks and customers, banks can use modern technology without meeting customers face to face or requiring physical documents and wet signatures.