No more loans, but non-refundable aid to pay rent and bills. This is the idea on which the government is reasoning to ensure really important help to traders, artisans and micro-enterprises. The measure alone is worth about half of a normal budget law: 10 billion euros. But it will only be a chapter of the April decree, which will also contain the so-called "emergency income" and should get the go-ahead from the Council of Ministers next week.
In detail, the 10 billion will be used by small businesses to cover the fixed costs of April and May, among which the most expensive items are precisely the expenses for the rent and the various bills.
THE AMOUNT OF THE INDEMNITY
The aid could only be granted to SMEs that have suffered a drop in turnover of more than 50%. It is more difficult than the compensation to be proportionate to the loss of revenue recorded in these first months of the coronavirus epidemic. In any case, there will be a maximum limit for each company.
THE DELIVERY MECHANISM
It remains to be established what the delivery method will be. At the moment, there are two hypotheses on the table.
- The first plans to guarantee entrepreneurs one discount on INPS contributions for employees, who are currently suspended.
- The second way, on the other hand, is more complicated, because it envisages granting non-refundable aid to all those who obtain the bank loan up to 25 euros with full state guarantee. In this case, the disbursement would consist of cancel part of the debt, or the entire sum for businesses forced to pay particularly high rents.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
The operation should also involve local authorities: fixed costs, in fact, include both municipal taxes (IMU, waste tax, tax on the occupation of public land) and regional taxes (Irap) and also on these fronts traders, artisans and self-employed in general could be helped.
THE EXAMPLE OF FRANCE AND GERMANY
With this initiative, Italy aims to align its anti-crisis package with that of the main European countries: for roughly the same audience and with the same purpose, France has guaranteed 1.500 euros a month for three months and Germany a total sum of 9 thousand euros. In both cases, these are not loans, but non-repayable aid to cushion the impact of the coronavirus on the productive fabric.
