As we reported recently, the Croatian Government has put together a new package of measures worth several billion kuna which should be finalised today. Companies will be able to defer the payment of loan installments, but such a move is not yet planned for regular residents. Croatian companies will also receive money to purchase the materials they need.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 16th of March, 2020, the Croatian Government is currently busy finalising an extremely expensive package of measures to help businesses cope with the economic issues caused by the current coronavirus outbreak, as Ivan Pandzic writes for 24sata.
Ministers will meet today and go over the measures, and then the Croatian Government will take them before MPs and entrepreneurs.
The 24sata publication was able to find out several things on the list of measures which are likely to have far reaching effects. Among them is the fact that working capital will be financed so that entrepreneurs and companies can get access to the money they require in order to procure production materials if they've been experiencing late payments from suppliers and have seen a fall in their revenue owing to the coronavirus outbreak. These measures will go through HBOR, HAMAG and will also involve commercial banks at the Croatian National Bank (CNB/HNB). Commercial banks habe stated they they are ready to participate in this assistance package.
What has been confirmed by the Croatian Government's interlocutors will certainly be used by the European Social Fund to finance company owners who cannot pay their staff, that is, they will get some kind of incentive not to lay off every worker. The European Commission (EC) is also set to provide 37 billion euros to member states.
The question is now just what the criteria for granting this assistance will be, and how much red tape will business owners have to go through in order to get help. One can only hope that in this time of coronavirus crisis, Croatia will finally cut its masochistic love of draconian bureaucracy.
''The details are yet to be agreed upon, but what's certain is that there will be clear criteria to prove that a business has been affected by coronavirus. The bureaucracy will be minimised so that the money can reach those who need it as soon as possible,'' 24sata wrote.
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