Thousands of firms must return loans

More than 17,800 businesses and professionals are being asked to return the state loans – known as the “Deposit To Be Returned” – they received from the seven cycles issued by the Finance Ministry during the pandemic.

The above did not comply with the terms and conditions set by the relevant legislation, such as the retention of staff for a specific period of time, and are now required to return the amount in one lump sum plus interest. In fact, some companies received the state aid and then started layoffs, did not submit tax returns etc.

Some of them would have only had to repay 25% of the government loan. For example, if a business received a total of 100,000 euros, it would have to return €25,000.

According to ministry officials, several companies that made layoffs cited as an excuse that they did not know they would have to keep the staff. In fact, there is a case of a company that received large sums of money from three phases of the program without complying at any stage with the condition of maintaining its staff, completely ignoring all the conditions provided by the legislation and the decisions.