The regional government has already paid a total of 41.8 million euros to companies and freelancers in the Canary Islands who have requested help to face losses caused by the Covid pandemic. In total, the Ministry of Economy reported that 7,357 applications have already been processed, out of the 18,000 that applied.
The vast majority correspond to companies that met the requirements to receive this non-refundable grant, since the amount distributed in the first line of aid was 33.5 million euros. To this amount must be added the 8.3 million euros that the Autonomous Community has already entered through line 1 of the call, which corresponded to the self-employed whose income clearly fell due to the economic stoppage caused by the pandemic.
In total, 18,530 applications were submitted to the aid lines launched by the regional government with its own funds, which means that more than a month after the deadline is closed, 11,173 requests from Canarian companies and freelancers remain pending a resolution.
Among them, the 44 million euros that remain from the initial fund of 85 million that the autonomous Executive allocated to these subsidies must be distributed, although at the time both the Minister of the Economy, Elena Máñez, and the Minister of Finance, Román Rodríguez, guaranteed that this amount would be increased to respond to all requests.
State aid:
In addition to this, 48 hours have elapsed since the opening of the application period for support and already 1,126 companies and freelancers have submitted their request to receive aid from the State to the Canarian Government.
In total, the electronic office of the Autonomous Community had received 114 files from self-employed workers for line 1 of subsidies, and 962 from companies for line 2 by yesterday afternoon.
The deadline to apply for these non-refundable grants opened on Tuesday and will close on July 28th. In total, Máñez estimates that 58,000 companies in the archipelago will be able to benefit from the decree of distribution of the 1.14 billion euros from the State, all those that can demonstrate losses of more than 30% of their income due to the economic stoppage and the opening restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
To facilitate this process, the procedure has been simplified so that companies and freelancers only have to submit the completed application, accompanied by a responsible declaration and registration with third parties. Everything will be done electronically at the Electronic Headquarters of the Autonomous Community. In addition, the chambers of commerce collaborate with the processing of application files and with advisory tasks through a telephone service (at number 900 909 519) and with face-to-face offices for micro-SMEs and freelancers that have been enabled in all the islands.
The aid is to be distributed in two lines depending on the type of taxation. Line 1 is intended for the self-employed who pay taxes in an objective taxation modality, and has been endowed with 70 million euros. Line 2, intended for the rest of the companies that had a turnover drop between 2019 and 2020 of more than 30%, is in turn divided into three groups based on the number of people employed: from 0 to 10 workers, equipped with 650 million euros; of between 11 and 49 workers, with 212 million euros, and of more than 50 workers, also with 212 million.
The maximum amount of aid for line 1 will be 3,000 euros, as stated in Royal Decree-Law 5/2021. For line 2, the minimum is set at 4,000 euros and the maximum is 500,000 euros for companies with 0 to 10 workers; 1.8 million for those from 11 to 49 people employed; and 5 million euros for those with more than 50 workers. The payment of the subsidy will be made in the form of advance payment of 100% of the amount, with which companies and freelancers will be able to have the money shortly after requesting State aid.
