The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, announced yesterday that the Government has completed the allocation of the 1.14 billion euros of state aid that it had received to compensate the self-employed and companies for the loss of income linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, after 777.6 million euros were transferred to the Canaries chambers of commerce for the payment of these non-returnable direct aids.
Torres reported that the distribution of such an unprecedented amount of public money has been achieved in record time, thus meeting the December 31st deadline set by the Central Government to consolidate the distribution of its 1.14 billion in aid, which was the largest part of the 11 billion euros distributed for this purpose among the regions of Spain.
The resolution granting public support for the lines that were pending, 2.2 billion (for companies with between 11 and 49 employees) and 2.3 billion (companies with 50 or more employees), has already been signed and published by the Ministry of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, through the General Directorate for Economic Promotion, which makes the Canary Islands the first region in the country to achieve the complete distribution of the state resources. He also confirmed that the aid will reach the beneficiary companies in the next few days.
The Archipelago was hit hardest and felt the greatest impact of the pandemic on its business sector with an estimated drop in regional GDP of around 20% in 2020, something that the Spanish Government recognized rewarding the islands with the largest amount of state aid.
With the publication of the resolution granting aid to affected companies, the Canary Islands has reached the objective that has been in process since June 15th of this year, which is when the first application period opened, less than six months ago, which was to ensure that this volume of aid arrived as soon as possible and within the term to the self-employed and companies affected by the crisis due to COVID-19, a condition that was generally measured through of the loss of income greater than 30% of those obtained in the year 2019.
BENEFICIARIES:
7,444 freelancers in the Canary Islands have benefited from this aid as follows:
11,389 companies with between 1 and 10 employees;
1,148 productive entities with more than 10 and less than 50 employees; 166 companies with workforces of 50 people or more.
In total there are 20,147 beneficiaries, who have had, or will soon have, part of the 1.14 billion euros distributed in the Canary Islands.
The chambers of commerce, along with the collaborating agencies of the administration for the management of the aid, will make the payments to those who have been awarded the aid from today.
This aid is added to the 87 million that the Canary Islands Government has already distributed from its own funds (decree law2 / 2012), and the compensation for the tourist IBI is still pending.
