WATCH: Wage Supplement Should Be For Those Who ‘Truly Need It’, Miriam Dalli Explains
Enterprise Minister Miriam Dalli together with Malta Enterprise chief Kurt Farrugia today announced a revamped version of the COVID-19 wage supplement – a scheme seeking to support businesses in Malta adversely impacted by the pandemic.
What sets this scheme apart from the previous one is that it will subsidise companies based on the losses they incurred during the pandemic, rather than what category they fall in.
Minister Dalli spoke to Lovin Malta about how she believes the scheme will help Malta’s businesses.
“In our discussions with the stakeholders, we always need to make sure that we have two binaries,” Dalli told Lovin Malta.
“We keep helping those industries that truly need the help, however we also have a lot of companies that have kept moving forward. We need to keep motivating these companies so that through well-thought-out strategy, they can keep growing and creating more jobs.”
The extent of losses incurred by companies will be calculated by comparing their present VAT returns to those of 2019.
The maximum amount of money a business can be entitled to is €800 per month for a full-time employee. To be eligible for this amount, said business must have had incurred at least a 55% loss in sales. Businesses that had to close down following the issuance of legal notices, such as bars, will receive the wage supplement at its maximum rate.
Last month, Superintendent for Public Health Charmaine Gauci announced the country’s bars and każini are to remain closed up until 1st February in line with the government’s measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.
On the other hand, companies that incurred a loss of less than 9% will no longer be eligible for the wage supplement scheme.
During the conference, Dalli explained that the wage supplement scheme is an investment of around €40 million per month.