Budget allocated for aid scheme to trade, services companies could be augmented

The state aid scheme for companies in the field of trade and services could be supplemented, among the beneficiaries being those who operate in shopping malls, Prime minister Ludovic Orban announced on Thursday.

"At the Ministry of Economy, which has a state aid scheme for companies in the field of trade and services, that is not sufficiently well-funded, has at the moment only 40 million euros, we are thinking of quickly putting this scheme into motion, because it is functional, by supplementing the allocated budget. For example, we can use this scheme for traders who operate in shopping malls, who have been affected and who need capital to restart their activity with the opening of the shopping malls," the Prime minister told the "Measures for the economic recovery of Romania" video-conference, organized by the National Council of Small and Medium-Sized Private Enterprises.

"In terms of the amount to be used for overcontracting, it will be used on the two measures on POR 2.1 and 2.2, all of which mean microgrants or investment grants for companies of different categories: either with amounts between 200,000 euros and one million euros, or with amounts between two million euros and six million euros. The amounts allocated here will be over 1.2 billion euros and will be available in a relatively short time. As far as measure 2.1 and measure 2.2 are concerned, with the exception of two to six million euros investment grants, which still require approval from the European Commission, the others are approved and for them we no longer need approval from the European Commission," Orban explained.

Another measure was aimed at enforcing the European Commission's decision to allow greater flexibility between programmes. According to the Prime minister, this has made one billion euros available for SME grant support schemes, which will be carried out through the Ministry of Economy.

"It is about a programme that will comprise three pillars. One pillar will be the grants for the restart capital for those areas that have been severely affected by the COVID crisis, such as HoReCa, passenger transport, especially international passenger transport, the entertainment industry. Here we will allocate a sum of 350 million euros for grants to be available to SMEs, basically working capital for the restart of the activity, money that can be used to pay suppliers, for various expenses that are necessary for the proper conduct of the activity of companies. Also, a sum of 550 million euros will be allocated to a grant scheme to SMEs, to support investments in several areas that we have not yet completed, but we are discussing, which we consider a priority, where there is potential for development. We will also allocate a sum of money to those LLCs, without employees, as they are called, in which the administrator is paid in dividends. We have a large number of such small companies that use this system and we are trying to give a signal of support to these small companies for which we will allocate 100 million euros," the prime minister said.