Reimbursable Advance 7: Terms, conditions and beneficiaries

Next week is expected to activate the platform for the submission Applications expression of interest for the refundable deposit 7, totalling EUR 1 billion. In the 7th cycle repayable advance, will be eligible as beneficiaries the businesses with criteria affected sectors, even if they had an increase turnover in 2020.

The basic criterion for the determination of the beneficiaries will be the drop in turnover between January and March 2021, with a reference period of the first quarter of 2020. However, there is expected to be an adjustment, given that during March last year the first lockdown.According to imerisia.gr, it is most likely that only the turnover of the first half of the year will be taken into account, or that there will be flexibility and the businesses the option to choose the months that suit them.

The aim is to cover the total for the quarter and those who did not manage to enter the refundable 6, because they may not have shown sufficient reduction Revenue in that month, as retail trade was open for part of January. 50% of the aid will be non-refundable, provided the number of employees is maintained until the end of August, while the remaining 50% will be refunded to 60 instalments from January 2022. Those who pay the amount due in one instalment will have additional discount 15%.

According to Department of the Treasury, the minimum amount of aid for undertakings which are closed will be increased to 8.000 euros from 4.000 euros in the «repayable advance 6», while the minimum funding threshold will be 1,000 euros.

All businesses will be eligible to participate, subject to the following conditions Prerequisites:

• Show a decrease in turnover of at least 20% in the period January-March 2021, compared to the reference period.
• Have a minimum reference turnover of 600 euros (corresponding to 3 months)
• Businesses that started business before 1 January 2018 and did not open a branch between 1 October 2019 and 31 December 2020 should not have an increase in turnover in 2020 compared to 2019.
• For the closed undertakings of the retail trade, OPAP shops and driving schools, there will be no comparison of turnover in 2020 with that of 2019.

New businesses in the directly affected sectors that started operations between December 2019 and January 2021 and which have been excluded in one of the two previous cycles of the Return are also eligible to participate. These businesses will be eligible, regardless of turnover

The final amount will include the amount that beneficiaries may have received through the repayable advance 6 and it is estimated that the number of businesses that will be able to benefit will reach 300,000.