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Culture
Graça Fonseca, speaking first before the Minister of Culture, announced a package of 42 million euros “universal, non-competitive and non-refundable.”
This is the first phase of a program called “Garantir Cultura” that “represents the materialization of a program created by the 2021 State Budget law to support cultural and artistic work,” said the minister.
The funds are intended for both legal entities and individuals. The first group comprises “all companies and collective entities in the cultural sector, theaters, theaters, production companies, agents, independent cinemas, film clubs and associations”, while the second is “all professionals in the area of culture”, which includes “artists, technicians and authors”.
In addition to this measure, the minister also announced the approval of aid for the amount of an IAS (Social Support Index), that is, 438 euros, universally destined “to all workers who have an economic or labor code.” IRS in the cultural sector “
“With the new confinement, with a new stoppage of cultural activities and facilities throughout the country, this stoppage has a particularly strong impact on workers in this sector,” said Graça Fonseca, adding that this support “aims to mitigate or mitigate impacts that this new stop has in this sector ”and that can be accumulated with the support of Social Security and the dismissal.
Graça Fonseca also referred to the following measures to support the cultural sector.
Support from the General Directorate of Arts:
- Direct support to artistic entities through DGArtes without contests this year, the cycle is postponed to 2022. It is applied to the 75 eligible entities but not supported by the 2020/2021 sustained support contest and has the impact of 12 million euros for two years;
- Support supplement to artistic entities that receive support but have not received full support due to limited budget allocation;
- Renewal of support for the 186 entities that currently receive sustained support;
- New support for an amount of 8.4 million euros to support the 368 entities that applied for the project support contest;
- Creation of the support program for the network of theaters and cinemas, a measure planned and programmed for the last quarter of 2021.
- This month, support will be opened to non-professional entities in the sector through the regional cultural departments.
Cinema
- 1.4 million euros of reinforcement of 2020 Contest of the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisuals, thus supporting six more works in 2021 compared to what was expected;
Music
- Increase in the participation of Portuguese music on the radio to 30%. This “definition is something that has existed since 2009 and the law establishes that the culture minister must update this quota every year,” said Graça Fonseca, adding that “this value has not been updated since 2009.”
books
- Reinforcement of the value of scholarships to support literary creation, with the opening of 24 scholarships: 12 with an annual individual value of 15 thousand euros; 12 semesters with 7,500 euros. This represents an investment of 270 thousand euros;
- New program for the acquisition of books for small and medium-sized independent bookstores for distribution by libraries of the National Library Network, amounting to 300 thousand euros;
- Creation of a line of support for the publishing of Portuguese publishers, also worth 300 thousand euros.
Museums
- Creation of a line worth 600 thousand euros within the framework of the ProMuseos Program, designed so that museums can develop activities aimed at attracting the public to new exhibitions when the resumption takes place.
Business
Regarding the support to companies in terms of employment, the Minister of Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, began by mentioning that the greatest demands of the business fabric were regarding the speed of entry of new support.
For this reason, the minister announced that “all companies that are the subject of a determination to close the activity immediately have access to the simplified dismissal regime, which has been recovered and strengthened.”
This regime, he guaranteed, “will remain in force as long as this confinement decision is maintained” and is available to companies “that are in the support regime for progressive resumption”, being able “to immediately move to simplified dismissal.”
What changes in the new layoffs regime is that there will be “an increase in compensation” for workers and, for companies, “the same level of effort is maintained.”
“For each worker who is under a simplified dismissal regime, either from the point of view of reducing the normal working period or from the point of view of the suspension of the contract, the employer pays an amount similar to 19% of the worker’s salary, being exempt from TSU ”, indicated the minister.
In addition to these employment support measures, Pedro Siza Vieira also announced that the current tax execution procedures will be suspended or that they will be instituted by the Tax Authority and Social Security.
Taking this point into account, from January 1 to March 31 it will not be possible to execute the promises, and the payment of debt installment plans to Social Security has also been suspended.
Other measures include:
Pause in billing:
- In support of progressive resumption, the possibility of reducing working hours pfor companies with turnover losses greater than 100% er50% reduction in TSU for micro, small and medium-sized companies, also covering the managing partners.
Micro-businesses:
- Simplified support for micro-businesses worth 2 SMN (€ 1,330) per worker;
Employees:
- Workers laid off with a pay of up to 3 SMN receive 100%;
Self-employed:
- Support for the Reduction of Activity has been reactivated, including the self-employed who are exempt from contributions.
- New extraordinary support for workers’ income;
Managing partners:
- Support for Activity Reduction and access to Extraordinary Support for Progressive Resumption was reactivated.
Regarding the measures to support the economy, these are the ones that the Government will implement:
Reopening of lines with State guarantee
- Reopening of the line for the sectors most affected by the pandemic mitigation measures for an amount of 400 million euros, aimed at companies that had an annual turnover drop of more than 25% in 2020;
Non-refundable support:
- Support for the loss of funds for the sectors most affected by the mitigation measures of the pandemic, aimed at companies with an annual income breakdown greater than 25% in 2020 and granted under the guarantee of maintaining employment and not distributing benefits. There will be increases for closed sectors from March 2020, by legal or administrative determination
Supermarkets will not be able to sell books, clothes or decorative objects
Supermarkets and hypermarkets will be prevented from selling non-food items, such as clothing, books and decorative objects, as of next week, the Minister of State and Economy also announced.
The diploma that will limit the sale of some products in department stores should be published this Friday and will take effect next week, giving the sector time to remove them from the shelves.
“We determine the closure of a set of commercial activities, retail stores and what is expected is that the sale in super or hypermarkets, large food distribution areas, the type of products sold in stores whose closure is determined [neste novo confinamento geral]”Siza Vieira said today.
The Minister of Economy affirmed that the measure “is in the process of regulation” and will enter into force “from the beginning of next week.”
At stake, according to Siza Vieira, are decorative products, sports, books or textiles, that is, items sold in retail stores that are forced to close doors from this Friday.
The minister also said that the diploma should be published this Friday in order to give supermarkets and similar commercial areas time to remove from their shelves products that will be prohibited from sale, recalling, however, that for all companies the modalities are still available. sale online or ‘at the window’.
“These public health measures cannot be market distortion measures,” he said.
The execution of this measure will be in charge of the Food and Economic Safety Authority (ASAE)
