Jumpstarting the enterprises
Finance Ministry to invest another billion euros to support the reopening of the market
The Finance Ministry is about to activate two new support measures that may run up to 1 billion euros, aimed at supplying enterprises with liquidity upon their post-lockdown relaunch.
The first measure concerns the subsidizing of fixed expenditure and the second will allow for many enterprises that have participated in the first three phases of the cheap state loans program to receive 35% of those loans as credit to be used for the payment of tax and social security contributions by the end of 2021.
On every occasion ministry officials stress that from now on any support measures taken will be strictly targeted, which means there will be no eighth phase of the loans program known as the “Deposit To Be Returned,” and the period of zero rents for enterprises suffering as a result of the lockdown is about to come to its end.
For any companies facing problems or located in areas under strict lockdown measures, the government will activate a special-purpose compensation, as it recently did with enterprises in Thessaloniki and Patra.
The measure dubbed the “restart subsidy” will concern companies that received loans in phases 1 to 3 of the Deposit To Be Returned program, employ staff and suffered a turnover decline of at least 30% last year, compared to 2019. The tax credit of 35% of their loan will come under the condition they repay 100% of the loans in 60 monthly tranches.
Sources say that the catchment of the measure is some 25,000 enterprises, mostly small stores, food service enterprises and other service sector companies such as gyms.
The other measures, having to do with covering part of the annual fixed costs of companies, will again concern companies with staff and will also be in the form of credit to be used for the payment of tax and social security dues, with each company deciding where its credit will go.
The total cost of this measure for the state budget is estimated at €500 million.
