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5 BILLION EURO PACKAGE: 7 KEY MEASURES TO HELP THE ECONOMY AND CITIZENS

31. March 2020.

Belgrade - The President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, announced that the package of assistance to the economy prepared by the Government of the Republic of Serbia would be worth around five billion euros.

He said in an interview granted to TV Prva that the state was able to earmark so much money to businessmen because public finances were in a good condition and because there was a budget reserve, but that the state would borrow funds for these purposes on the domestic and international markets.

The complete package of measures will be presented on Tuesday, March 31, and these are the key ones:

1. MINIMUM wages for all entrepreneurs, small and micro enterprises over a three-month period, regardless of whether they operated and paid wages to their workers. Around 700 million euros will be set aside for this purpose. Only those who have not laid off more than 10 percent of their workers will be able to count on those measures.

2. DELAYING TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS to entrepreneurs, micro and small businesses for the next year.

3. FAVORABLE LOANS in the amount of 2 billion euros that the state will support with the amount ranging from 480 to 600 million euros for medium-sized, small and micro enterprises. The annual interest rate should be 3.57 percent on the financial resources in domestic currency, and the government will give a three-year guarantee.

4. LOANS of the Development Fund in the amount of 200 million euros for lending to companies under the best possible conditions, or the interest on the euro amount should not exceed one percent, with a grace period of nine to 12 months.

5. CO-CORPORATE BONDS that medium-sized and large companies can issue will be purchased by the state and thus and the money for conducting business operations will be provided.

6. STATE AID to the Air Serbia Company, because the ban on state financial assistance to public and state-owned companies does not apply to a state of emergency.

7. A 100 EUR GIFT to all the citizens, which would be an expenditure of 520 million euros.

Source: BIZLife, OK Radio and Coordination Body