The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia – CCIS (Gospodarski zbornici Slovenije – GZS) is satisfied with the amendments to the first anti-corona legislative package, and the adoption of the second package. This means that the economy has now received the much-needed support during the time of the current emergency, they said. And now, the third legislative package should quickly be prepared, they urge.
The National Assembly adopted a new amendment to the emergency legislative package for the help to all citizens and businesses in the aftermath of the epidemic of the novel coronavirus, and a law which will enable the state to be a guarantee for the loans for businesses.
The amendment to the first anti-corona legislative package eliminated some of the shortcomings, according to the President of CCIS Boštjan Gorjup and the General Manager of the Chamber Sonja Šmuc.
One of the measures is also a guarantee scheme for bank loans
The Chamber believes that expanding the range of beneficiary companies who can put workers on standby, is of the utmost importance for them to be able to maintain jobs and liquidity of the affected companies. They are also pleased with the fact that the companies can now bring back the employees who are on standby for any seven days within one month. The CCIS also believes that among the key measures of the law, in addition to putting workers on standby, is the fact that the employers will not have to pay the pension contributions, nor cover the costs of compensation for workers who cannot work because of force majeure. A guarantee scheme for transitional moratoriums for bank loans has also been added to the amendment.
They do wish that there would have been a time adjustment for the employees’ sickness benefit coverage. The budget will only cover the compulsory health insurance benefits from after the law entered into force on April 11th.
The Government should get to the third legislative package with the same pace
The law on providing additional liquidity to the economy to mitigate the consequences of the epidemic of the novel coronavirus brings a new bank loan guarantee scheme, which provides companies with additional liquidity. “We are pleased with the decision to raise the level of the state guarantee up to 80 percent for small and medium-sized enterprises, and to 70 percent for large enterprises, which is what we have called for,” the CCIS wrote. However, they have estimated that the amount of loans, which is limited to 10 percent of the company’s turnover, is too low. They also believe that the decree, based on which new loans under this scheme are excluded from the emergency law’s decree on old loans from the end of March, should be deleted. This means that companies that have applied for a moratorium on bank loans will be limited in their possible amounts of new loans.
The Chamber asked the Government to continue with its rapid pace of adopting emergency legislation. The third aid package is expected to allow the option of shorter working hours, bring additional resources for the sectors most affected, and introduce a measure that enables the companies to buy and secure debt claims.
Rok Krajnc