On Tuesday, the government considered changes to the support measures for employers and employees affected by the Covid-19 crisis, prepared by the Economics Ministry.
The government decided to reduce the existing qualification criterion for receiving the downtime payments from a 50 percent decrease in turnover to a 20 percent decrease. This means that downtime payments will be available to companies whose operating income for the month in question has decreased at least 20 percent as compared to the average income this past August, September and October.
Support will be provided to companies in all sectors.
According to the Economics Ministry's estimates, 544,000 employees could meet the support conditions, therefore the total support amount is projected at EUR 52,273,828.
The State Revenue Service is accepting applications for downtime benefits and wage subsidies effective today. Economics Minister Janis Vitenbergs (KPV KV) said at the government meeting today that payment of downtime payments would begin already this week.
