The government negotiated to help restaurants and bars, which it closed until November 3 due to the coronavirus crisis. Aktuálně.cz received a proposal for a measure according to which the field of gastronomy should receive significant compensation. But only some are approved.
The addressed companies and associations do not want to comment too much on the details of the proposal yet, they want to wait until its possible approval. However, compared to the spring help of various other disciplines, the points proposed were significantly more generous.
The situation in gastronomy is significantly worse than in spring. As Aktuálně.cz wrote on Tuesday, many companies consumed savings during the spring ban and the summer season could not replace the huge drop in sales.
The government has a proposal on the table to pay the full amount of wages, including levies for employees in gastronomy, even though sales from windows are allowed. “If this is approved, we will consider it a mega-success. The government would save the moving train from hitting the wall. There are a large number of people working in the industry, currently about 150,000. would be a big problem, “warns Luboš Kastner from the Association of Small and Medium – Sized Enterprises of the Czech Republic and at the same time co – owner of the Hospodska group.
So far, however, the government has approved “only” the extension of the Antivirus type A program until the end of the year. It is intended for entrepreneurs who had to close down by government regulation. Employees receive a wage compensation in the amount of 100% of average earnings, up to a maximum of 50,000 super-gross wages. The program specifically for gastronomy and beyond the existing Antivirus A, however, has not yet been approved.
“The goal is to have a tool for wage compensation for gastronomy even after the end of restrictive measures, at least until the end of 2020, ideally by the end of February 2021,” adds Kastner.
Another help is the reopening of the program Covid – Rent, which ended in August. Restaurants, bars and clubs will now be compensated with 50 percent of the rent for three months. The maximum amount of support will be ten million crowns. Unlike the first call of the program, the grant will not be conditional on a landlord’s discount, which was conditional on spring state aid. 1.2 billion crowns are set aside for the program.
According to the Minister of Industry and Trade Havlíček, the support will be eligible. “Whoever applies will receive it if he meets the basic conditions and is among the selected segments,” he said. According to him, it will be immediate help for entrepreneurs, because the state will contribute back to the rent for July to September.
“The revocation of the landlord’s consent is clearly correct. A number of entrepreneurs in the gastro failed in the first wave and actually got nothing at all. .
Another help that restaurateurs would need would be the opportunity to sell food even after 8 pm, through food delivery companies. At least until 10 p.m. Now they can only sell food through the “windows” until eight in the evening. But it has not been approved yet.
On Wednesday, however, the Ministry of Finance extended the validity of the tax breaks introduced as part of the spring liberation packages and extended them with others. A novelty is the deferral of tax obligations to those entrepreneurs whose activities were immediately limited government regulation.
Entrepreneurs whose predominant activity falls into one of the fields explicitly targeted by government bans, which is now gastronomy, have now automatically deferred all payments of VAT, income taxes and road tax, which were due in times of emergency. “It is enough for the financial administration to be notified that the Minister of Finance meets the conditions of the General Pardon, including by e-mail,” the Ministry of Finance states.
Furthermore, associations operating in gastronomy want to focus on negotiations with the Union of Towns and Municipalities and individual regions, so that compensation and support for restaurateurs can also be implemented regionally. “Cities and regions have so far mostly helped tourism, but we also need to consider some financial compensation directly to local restaurant and bar operators,” says Kastner.
There is also a deferral of payments on loan repayments to entrepreneurs in the gastronomy. At the end of October, the government’s moratorium on deferring loan repayments ends, and the Ministry of Finance wants to discuss its postponement with the Czech Banking Association, at least for certain sectors. But the banking association announced this week that it sees no reason why the moratorium should be extended. According to her, banks are ready to help anyone who gets into trouble with repaying loans due to financial distress.
At the beginning of the week, the government announced that restaurants, bars and clubs must be completely closed by November 3, the end of the state of emergency.
– .
