The Government redesigns the direct aid plan with 7,000 million for SMEs and the self-employed
The Government will approve this Friday in an extraordinary Council of Ministers the package of public aid amounting to 11,000 million euros for the hospitality, tourism and trade sector, which includes a direct support fund for SMEs and the self-employed in 7,000 million to be managed by the autonomous communities, according to El País has advanced and government sources have confirmed to Europa Press.
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The measure was scheduled to receive a "green light" last Tuesday after finalizing the details over the weekend. However, the discrepancies over the amount of direct aid between Moncloa and the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Finance, in addition to the demands of United We can increase direct aid, has delayed its approval until this Friday.
The fund of direct aid to companies will be managed by the autonomous communities, although the Tax Agency will control the requirements to obtain the benefits and the Balearic and Canary Islands will have a special item due to the impact on the tourism sector.
The Government's idea is that such aid can arrive in the "shortest period of time", although the head of the Treasury, María Jesús Montero, admitted this Thursday, in an interview on RTVE collected by Europa Press, that talking about "days" it would be "very risky", because a job of legal guarantees is needed to ensure that "the money arrives and is used for the purposes that are foreseen."
These figures, which have been closed since last week, are closer to what United Podemos demanded, which asked that the amount of direct aid to companies be 8,000 million euros.
In the absence of specifying those last "technical details", the Executive will approve in the Extraordinary Council of Ministers tomorrow these 11,000 million euros, aimed at avoiding solvency problems in companies, especially SMEs, after the impact suffered by the restrictions of the third wave of Covid and after the Government approved last year 40,800 million (5% of GDP) in direct aid, mainly ERTE, and has committed to date 2% of GDP in 2021 to this end .
The aid from this fund will be added to those already implemented by the Autonomous Communities and the new measures that the regions will configure after the transfer made by the State of the Covid-19 fund of 16,000 million, to which the 8,000 million would be added. euros received from the React-EU Fund this year.
The aid from this fund will be added to those already implemented by the Autonomous Communities and the new measures that the regions will configure after the transfer made by the State of the Covid-19 fund of 16,000 million, to which the 8,000 million would be added. euros received from the React-EU Fund this year.
In addition to direct aid, a second fund will also be set up for the restructuring of the more than 120,400 million credits guaranteed to date by the Official Credit Institute (ICO), 98% to SMEs and the self-employed, endowed with 3,000 million .
In this regard, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation could draw up a protocol for restructuring, although it is foreseeable that it will eventually leave the removal and restructuring processes at the mercy of the banks. In any case, the entities will have to assume part of the cost of these new measures.
The third and last fund would be a recapitalization fund for medium-sized companies through the public company Cofides, with an amount of 1,000 million, in line with the one implemented by the State Society for Industrial Participations (SEPI) of 10,000 million euros for large companies.
In this way, the instruments that could see the light are in line with what Calviño has hinted at in recent weeks and would include direct aid and aid through solvency (debt relief), as claimed from different sectors that they have urged in recent days that the approval not be delayed any longer.
The new package of aid being finalized by the Government has been configured after months of work mainly by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation together with the Bank of Spain and financial institutions, as well as the departments of Industry, Commerce and Tourism or Labor, since As the third vice president of the Government, Nadia Calviño, has assured, the entities have to continue to play an important role in the new measures and will assume part of the cost of the same.
In this line, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism has been working on direct aid for months, considering that the aid implemented to date, such as cost reduction, ERTE, the rent moratorium, tax or contribution deferrals or the Horeca Plan approved in December were not enough for the sector.
