The Junta de Andalucía will award direct aid of €1,000, processed immediately, to SMEs in the retail, crafts, hospitality and travel agency sectors, which have been hit hard by the COVID-19 health crisis. The measure has a budget of €46.1 million and is expected to benefit more than 46,000 small and medium-sized businesses.
The decree law approved yesterday by the Governing Council provides for two lines of grants, both funded with ERDF funds. The first is aimed at retail shops and the crafts sector, with a budget of €26.4 million. The second, with €19.7 million, will benefit the hospitality sector, which includes tourist accommodation, travel agencies and catering businesses.
In both categories, €1,000 per grant will be awarded under a non-competitive system, that is, in order of submission of applications until the allocated funds run out.
The measure forms part of the Support Plan for SMEs and the Self-Employed signed in November between the Junta de Andalucía and the Confederación de Empresarios de Andalucía (CEA), the Asociación de Autónomos (ATA) and the Chambers of Commerce.
To qualify for the aid, applicants must meet the following requirements:
- Be an SME (fewer than 250 employees and annual turnover not exceeding €50 million)
- Keep their tax domicile in Andalucía
- Have been carrying out the activity before 14 March and keep it active until the day the application period opens
- Businesses applying for the incentives must show a fall in sales or income due to COVID-19 of at least 20% in 2020 compared with 2019, and demonstrate that they were not in difficulty as of 31 December 2019
- In addition, beneficiaries must remain registered for the Business Activities Tax (IAE) and, where applicable, in the Special Social Security Scheme for the Self-Employed, as well as in the Andalucía Register of Craftspeople or the Andalucía Tourism Register, for at least four months from the day after the application period opens.
The SMEs that can apply for the aid are those classified under the codes of the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) or the headings of the Business Activities Tax (IAE) corresponding to retail services, tourist accommodation, catering and travel agencies.
The incentives will be managed by the Regional Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities, and their purpose is to help the businesses run by these SMEs to continue operating.
The grants will be processed through a streamlined administrative system that will allow applications to be resolved within two months, so that the first payments can be made in the first months of the year. To this end, the decree law establishes that applications can only be submitted online.
The grants will be compatible with any other incentives awarded by public or private bodies for the same purpose to these sectors, except for grants awarded under decree law 29/2020 of 17 November, on extraordinary cessation-of-activity benefits contained in Royal Decree Law 30/2020 of 29 September.
This exception also covers the cessation-of-activity benefit compatible with self-employment and the extension of benefits already granted under Royal Decree Law 24/2020 of 26 June.
