€4.5 billion reserved for extra Covid support for businesses: Report

The cabinet is reserving at least 4.5 billion euros for extra aid to help companies survive the coronavirus crisis, sources told RTL Nieuws. As the pandemic stretches on, more and more companies are burning through their reserves. This amount comes on top of the billions in support already promised.

The fixed costs allowance, the TVL scheme, will increase considerably. Companies that lost 100 percent of their turnover, will get at least 80 percent of their fixed costs reimbursed, compared to the current 70 percent, according to the broadcaster. The compensation for smaller revenue losses is also increasing by at least 10 percent. And more companies will be eligible for this scheme.

There will also be extra support for shops that have been closed for more than a month now. In December, they already received a once-off amount to help pay for stock that could not be sold. That amount will be increased and the scheme will be extended.

The government is also looking for some way to help brand new businesses, a complicated task as they have no previous turnover on which support can be based. A solution has been found to help this group, sources told RTL Nieuws.

Ministers Wopke Hoekstra of Finance, Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs, and Bas van 't Wout of Economic Affairs are finalizing the extra support on Thursday morning and will present the package in the afternoon.