Corporate subsidy extended

The government has decided to extend its program for subsidizing companies’ fixed expenditures, allowing restriction-stricken businesses to offset their tax and social security obligations with state vouchers until June 2022.

An estimated 100 million euros from this program, which started last year, has not been used up, allowing the program to be extended by six months. 

Subsidies will be calculated according to the statements corporations have already submitted in the context of the measures against the financial impact of the pandemic. Using the existing declarations means that companies may not redistribute their vouchers in the way they might like, as Finance Ministry sources had previously suggested, but should utilize them this year as allocated. Otherwise, the unclaimed amount will be returned to the state budget.

Moreover, taking into account the special conditions that many firms faced last year due to the various wildfires, particularly those in northern Evia, the new regulations relieve them of the obligation of maintaining the same number of staff for the duration of the program.

The Finance Ministry has also postponed until the end of June the deadline for the first tranche toward the payable dues from the state loans known as the “Deposit To Be Returned.”