News Coronavirus: €1.8bn package to safeguard business, employment – PM Abela

The Prime Minister on Wednesday announced a €1.8bn euro package to aid business in the wake of the Coronavirus spread.

The package includes €700m in tax deferrals, €900m in loan guarantees, a €210m injection to assist the economy and €35m to the health sector to fight the disease.

Addressing the media, Robert Abela said that the aim is to sustain business at a time of crisis. The PM said that the aim is for the measures to be sustainable, and where possible, because over the past years the country was doing so well from an economic point of view.

One of the measures is a government payment of €350 per employee. This will cover the costs of having people on quarantine because of the virus. Government also announced that it will be shouldering between one and three days of salary per week to people working for industries, including the self-employed, that have been harshly hit, in different ways, by the Coronavirus crisis.

At the start of the press conference, Abela said that he was not going to order a lockdown; the situation is still under control and there is no need to panic.

The priority at this stage remains the health sector but government understands that the situation has had a negative impact on business.

"We are offering an ambitious package aimed to help businesses and families during this period of uncertainty and guarantee stability," Abela said.

We are aiming to protect businesses without making distinctions, the PM said. The plan is to overcome this situation with the least repercussions for the economy and to kick-start businesses as soon as the crisis is over.

All measures have been costed and government has also taken into consideration the eventuality that this particular period takes longer than anticipated, Abela said.

He said that government had a choice, that of seeing the country registering more budget surpluses or taking care of people who were genuinely fearing for their health and their economic situation.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said that what government is proposing will entail €700m in tax deferrals and €900m in loan guarantees.

Local banks can accept all requests for a moratorium of up to three months on personal and business loans, he said.

There are up to 12,000 families with children where both parents work in the private sector. If neither parent can telework, government will fund an additional two months of leave for one of the parents. This measure is expected to cost around €16m.

PM Abela also announced a €210m injection to assist the economy and €35m to health authorities to fight Covid-19. This will be used to buy beds, protective clothing, ventilators and other necessary equipment. There is no capping, Scicluna said. Whatever the health sector needs, we will provide.

Scicluna said it is to be expected that the rate of economic growth will slow down. "Right now the fundamentals are strong," he said. "We left from a very strong position, where the growth rate was 7% and this year we were expecting growth of 4.3%."

Economy Minister Silvio Schembri said that the self-employed who have had to shut down operations completely will receive two days’ worth of revenue every week, capped at €800 a month. Those who have employees will receive three days’ worth.

Businesses, which have experienced a decrease in trade of at least 25%, will be given the equivalent of one day's work a week per employee, capped at €800 per month.

The same applies for self-employed who experienced a decrease of 25%. In the case of selfemployed, who have employees government will cover two days a week.

There will be an unemployment benefit of €800 a month for those who lost their employment as at 8 March. Disabled persons who cannot work from home will also get a benefit of €800 a month.

Those whose employment was terminated but who did not benefit from the rent subsidy will now be eligible for it.

Schembri said that this might not be the last package to be provided. If the circumstances change, government is ready to revise its position and be able to help more.

During the conference, Schembri also announced that Malta will no longer accept applications for work from third-country nationals "with immediate effect".