Employers lobby the state to the last penny, but advertising shakes

This was discussed at a meeting of the Seimas Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday.

According to Edita Janušienė, director of the STI, after announcing plans to publish more than 100 thousand. The list of tax-deferred taxpayers of 1 billion euros has attracted business interest.

“Yesterday we announced this decision and we give the company a few days to evaluate its financial situation, its capabilities and pay at least part of the deferred payments. The commercial interest is.

We don’t see any significant changes yet, but we expect them to be reflected in the latest data on Monday morning. There is a request not to stigmatize the business, so we gave it that deadline. We hope there will be fewer companies, “said E. Janušienė.

It was announced Tuesday that the list includes about 1,000. companies. It is planned to begin publishing their names as of December 14, the amounts of deferred arrears accrued before December 1 and the amounts of taxes paid.

As the chairman of the commission, Mykolas Majauskas, pointed out at the meeting, tax deferral is currently one of the most significant measures to help companies.

“Two main measures remain today, namely a subsidy after downtime and a tax deferral. In total, they add up to more than 150 million. Monthly injection into the Lithuanian economy. This is at the expense of the taxpayers.

Both injections will expire soon. Subsidies after the expiration of downtime: as of January 1, they will cease to exist because the law expires. The tax deferral expires at the end of February next year, “he said.

M. Majauskas warned that after announcing the postponement of the postponement of arrears, the number of users should decrease.

“I think this is a good sign. By the way, we are considering extending this measure (until July 1), so it would be important to receive information on how much it could cost ”, he addressed the representatives of the Ministry of Finance.

Abuse

Giedrė Vitė, Deputy Director of the Employment Service, who attended the meeting, recalled that currently three main measures of support are provided to companies. These are subsidies for employers who have declared downtime, subsidies for employers after downtime, and subsidies for employers who are included in the list of victims of Covid-19 by ITS.

We also pay benefits to small companies, that is, to the self-employed ”, he added.

G. Vitė told the Seimas members that there were cases of abuse.

“There is an attempt to circumvent certain rules of the law. For example, to change contracts from permanent to permanent. Employers change because then they receive a higher subsidy.

With subsidies reduction to 30%. (Month 5 and 6), the employer calculates that it is no longer financially beneficial for him and declares the downtime again because the downtime allowance is higher in recent months.

There are still cases where employers only hire for a subsidized period and then workers are fired.

We note that partial downtime is only advertised for a few days or hours so that the after-downtime allowance can be used later.

By the way, a significant number of employers did not stop their activities during the quarantine, they did not publish the downtime, but they were included in the list approved by the STI. As a result, they were able to receive a “post-grant” grant.

There are cases when during the period of payment of the subsidy, when the intensity of the subsidy decreases, the employees are laid off and replaced by employees with a higher salary in the list of employees, ”said the service representative.

“Employers are trying to get as much out of the state as possible and they may not be affected by Covid-19,” Vite said.

Inga Balnanosienė, director of the Employment Service, added that there are not tens or even hundreds of abusive companies.

“We have around 2.5 thousand companies that manage about 30 thousand employees who receive 100 percent for a maximum of 6 months.” Post-stabilization “subsidy.

Therefore, the continuation of this measure must be very specific. I propose to drop the ITS list, and those companies facing restrictions will be able to release employees. If we passed a stricter scheme and only funded idle workers, the need would drop to 50-54 million. euros, ”he said.

Currently, the need is about 100 million. 500 million euros per month, with a total expenditure of around 500 million euros in the last six months. euros.

I. Balnanosienė said that if the request was adjusted, 85,000 would receive aid, not 200,000. employers employing employees. “Only those who received downtime benefits that lasted less than a month and did not lay off those workers would receive them,” he said.

M. Majauskas added that the allowance after downtime should reach 100%. salary, but no more than 1 MMA per month, and your payment would last until the end of the quarantine and for two months thereafter.

He also said that next Wednesday the new government should approve the adjusted budget for next year in the first session and present it to the Seimas on Thursday (December 17).

“All the measures that will be used, they will be extended, they will have to be reflected in next year’s budget next Wednesday,” he said.

Sign a contract

At the Seimas BFK session, the billion Dainius Vilčinskas, manager of the business support fund. He said 70 companies have been contacted so far about the aid.

“The total amount of quota needs exceeds 200 million, but some companies have not yet named the amounts,” he said.

D. Vilčinskas noted that three positive and one negative decisions have already been made regarding business assistance.

“About 10 more applications have the complete documents submitted. We will sign the first contracts this year (a contract of 7 million euros already this week), “he said.

The speaker further explained that the new fund operates through loans, bonds, hybrid instruments (convertible or subordinated bonds) and, in exceptional cases, can also buy corporate shares.

“But the rules about when we can do it are very strict. There are no intentions to participate in state capitalism,” said D. Vilčinskas.