Firms have until June 30 to return wage subsidy

EMPLOYERS and employees who have not yet returned their Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) may still do so only until June 30 this year.

The Department of Finance said the SBWS program task force (SPTF) has resolved to allow the voluntary return of SBWS until the end of this month as it heeded requests from employers and employees who are still unable to return the SBWS despite multiple extensions of the deadline.

The SPTF earlier said the SBWS must be returned by employers who failed to maintain the employment status of all employee beneficiaries before the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in 2020 and throughout the SBWS or misrepresented in their application material facts relevant to the eligibility of their employees.

The SPTF added that employees who resigned during the period of ECQ and modified ECQ imposed in Luzon and other parts of the country in 2020 must also return the subsidy.

Employers of the beneficiaries of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)’S Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (Camp) who received the full amount of the second tranche of the SBWS are also obliged to return the subsidy.

The amount of subsidy to be returned should cover the first and second tranches of SBWS, according to the task force.

However, Camp beneficiaries who received the full amount of the SBWS second tranche shall only return the amount equivalent to the DOLECAMP benefit received.

The procedure for voluntary returns is contained in SPTF Resolution 2, which may be found on the SBWS page of the DOF website.

To recall, the task force has previously granted multiple extensions of the deadline, which was originally set on June 15, 2020, to give employers and employees more time to return the subsidy.

However, the SPTF decided to set a final deadline, more than a year after the initial deadline, because of the impending liquidation of the SBWS funds.

Under the SBWS program, the government gave out a total of P46 billion in wage subsidies to more than 3 million qualified employees of small businesses who were dislocated during the height of the community quarantines imposed last year to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The government provided two tranches of cash aid amounting to P5,000 to P8,000 each as a subsidy to qualified employees.

An SBWS interagency task force chaired by the DOF, represented by then Assistant Secretary Antonio Joselito G. Lambino II, was formed to implement the program. Its members were SSS President and CEO Aurora C. Ignacio and BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel SD. Guballa.

In the implementation of the program, the agencies took advantage of available technologies, cloud computing and the electronic databases of the SSS and the BIR to accurately target intended beneficiaries and quickly distribute the subsidy to millions of employees with zero face-to-face contact between the beneficiaries and government.