The Minister of Economy and Employment for the Canary Islands, Elena Máñez , announced yesterday that the aid plan of the regional Government for hospitality and tourism related businesses, has a budget of 165 million plus another 7 million from her department, will have three sections with non-repayable grants of between 3,000 and 15,000 euros.
Máñez explained that the indicators, for which aid is based upon, are a loss of income in 2020 in three levels:
- between 30 and 50%,
- between 50 and 70%
- and above 70%.
The processing will be through the ‘urgency route’ to reduce the deadlines by half, with simplified responsible declaration, advance payment of 100%, without subsequent justification, and has the full support of the chambers of commerce.
In hospitality alone it is estimated that there are 20,000 affected companies and 70,000 affected jobs, and the councillor gave the "agility" of the 3 million of aid of that was enabled for the subsector of nightlife in less than a month as an example.
In addition, she agreed that it is "impossible" to cover the 10 billion that the Canarian economy lost last year, so this aid, which outside of the 2021 Budget, will serve to mitigate the effects of the crisis. However, she insisted on the support of the public sector to cushion the crisis, with more than 95 million last year in aid from the regional government or the 1.5 billion that the ERTE has cost in the Archipelago.
Máñez stressed that the unemployment rate, above 25%, is eight points below the worst moment of the financial crisis, and valued tax deferrals at almost 236 million until the end of October to provide liquidity.
