Covid-19 business support not scaled down as gov't pledges another €3.7 billion

The Dutch government decided to scrap its plan to scale down coronavirus support measures and is instead allocating another 3.7 billion euros or new measures. As the coronavirus crisis is still dragging on, a "solid package" is still needed, especially for the hardest hit businesses, Ministers Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs, Wopke Hoekstra of Finance, and Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs announced in a press conference on Wednesday, NU.nl reports.

By keeping its current coronavirus support as is and adding a few new measures, the government wants to prevent job losses and company closures as much as possible. There will be more compensation for companies that suffered major turnover losses, for example because they had to close during the lockdown. 

The compensation for fixed costs, the TVL scheme, will be expanded so that companies will get between 50 and 70 percent of their costs compensated, depending on the turnover loss. The idea behind this is that the hardest hit companies will get the most support. The NOW regulation, which covers the wage bills of hard-hit companies, will not be scaled down as previously planned.

There will also be a new scheme for workers missing out on income, but who do not qualify for any of the existing schemes. This includes self-employed who don't have clients due to the crisis, and employees losing income because they're in quarantine, for example. 

This 3.7 billion euros comes on top of the nearly 34 billion euros the government already set aside for supporting businesses and their employees through this crisis. 

This extra support is needed because the second wave of coronavirus infections is lasting longer than expected, resulting in parts of the Dutch economy still being closed. Therefore, a "solid package" is still necessary, Wiebes said.