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– The crisis is not over, but we are in a different phase than we were in ours. It requires us to change the mode of crisis management, says Finance Minister Jan Tore Sanner (H).
Sanner says the government will now better facilitate activity and restructuring and look to “the longer-term challenges we face.”
The prime minister took a first step in that direction on Monday, when the government presented a new proposal with crisis measures totaling NOK 6.1 billion. The measures will counteract the economic consequences of the crown crisis.
125 billion
At the same time that the government presents the new crisis package, there are recent estimates of how much the crown crisis has affected public budgets.
– The crown-related measures that have been presented in 2020 total about NOK 125 billion, including the proposals that have been presented today, says the Ministry of Finance.
In addition, the costs of unemployment benefits and sickness benefits rise, as well as lower tax revenues. On the other hand, the estimates have been reduced both for payments through the National Insurance Plan and for some of the plans that were introduced earlier this year.
The new proposals now being presented to the Storting are primarily an extension to expand and adapt existing schemes, but there will also be new measures targeting industries that are still heavily affected.
Measures
Among the most important measures of the proposal that was presented to the Minister on Monday is the extension of the dismissal period to 52 weeks. This also includes the entered employer period of five days after 30 weeks from January 1, 2021.
In addition, there will be a new round of wage support for laid-off workers to return to work in October, November and December, and several new measures for tourism, which were presented today by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Iselin Nybø, and the Minister district attorney, Linda Helleland.
Here are other key points:
- NOK 1.9 billion to stimulate activity in the cultural, volunteer and sport sectors.
- NOK 1.5 billion to make up for lost public transport revenue.
- NOK 120 million for business development in the districts. Including NOK 40 million for the business garden and hatchery programs.
- NOK 500 million to municipalities that have had particularly high spending for the monitoring of the TISK strategy (testing, isolation, infection tracking and quarantine).
- NOK 200 million for a local compensation plan for the business community in the municipalities with the highest local infection.
- NOK 500 million for the purchase of a covid-19 vaccine.
- NOK 190 million for seasonal influenza vaccine for people in risk groups.
- NOK 251 million to establish test stations at border crossings.
- NOK 82 million to continue the 400 temporary police posts that were adopted as a result of the virus outbreak.
