Netherlands already spent €76.2 billion on the coronavirus crisis

To date, the Dutch government spent 76.2 billion euros on the coronavirus crisis, mainly in support packages for affected businesses. That is over 10 billion euros more than at the beginning of April, when the coronavirus bill stood at 66.1 billion euros, the Court of Audit reported on Thursday.

Two support measures for companies accounted for a large part of the 10 billion euros spent in the past three months. 2.2 billion euros was spent on wage subsidies through the NOW regulation, and 2.1 billion went to helping businesses with their fixed costs through the TVL scheme.

The government also pushed 1.5 billion euros into the education aid program. Health service GGD and the security regions got another 900 million euros. 900 million euros was reserved for partially compensating public transport companies for the fewer travelers. And 300 million euros went towards ensuring that the Netherlands has enough Covid-19 testing capacity.

On Budget Day in September last year, 11.2 billion euros was reserved in the 2021 budget for coronavirus related expenses. According to the Court of Audit, so far 44.7 billion euros was spent on these expenses this year.