The solutions proposed by Moldova’s Government for supporting the business community during the COVID-19 pandemic are inefficient, namely the authorities’ recommendation to business entities to take out loans to pay salaries. This way, owing to the restrictions imposed by the Commission for Exceptional Situations, many of the small and medium-sized enterprises do not perform economic activities. Consequently, the banks will not release loans to them, PAS MP Radu Marian said in the public debate “Supporting business community: between economy and politics” that was organized by IPN News Agency.
“The number of arguments “against” the adopted measures is larger than of those “for”. I want to refer to each of the measures and specify the problem and the alternative we propose. As regards the subsidization of interest rates on loans taken out by business entities, this measure regrettably does not help the small and medium-sized enterprises that stopped work as a result of the decisions taken by the Commission for Exceptional Situations as they cannot take out a loan from a bank when they do not work. I spoke to lending agents, banking entities and they laughed when they heard about this. The companies in difficulty will not get such a loan. The measure advantages large companies in a very good situation that have current assets, large capital and can raise loans and then get subsides,” stated Radu Marian.
The opposition insists and comes up with its own solutions that include the creation of a loan guarantee fund, payment of 75% of the salary and postponement of the payment of interest rates on loans taken out from micro-finance companies.
“The measure to defer the payment of interest is intended for people who are really in difficulty as we know how heavy the fines and penalties on these loans can be. The second measure is to create a loan guarantee fund of 2 billion lei for businesses in difficulty. The third measure is to subsidize 75% of the salary earners who were temporarily laid off, but not more than 75% of the average salary. I hope a part of these measures will be undertaken by the Ministry of Economy,” stated the MP.
He noted the solution to the rent problem of the hospitality industry is rather simple. The contracting sides can invoke the situation of emergency and a certificate is needed, eventually from the Chamber of Commerce, to obtain exemption from paying rental.
According to Radu Marian, even if the Ministry of Economy comes up with very good proposals for supporting the business community, it cannot impose its opinion on the Ministry of Finance as this has other priorities that are dictated by the Commission for Exceptional Situations.
The debate “Supporting business community: between economy and politics” was the 130th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture through public debates” that are supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.