Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Caretaker Cabinet extends ’60:40′ wage support scheme
Bulgaria’s caretaker Cabinet approved on October 6 the extension of its main wage support programme, put in place as a measure to reduce the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, until the end of 2021.
The Cabinet said in a statement that the scheme, known as “60:40”, will apply retroactively to cover the months of August and September.
Introduced last year, the measure is intended to retain jobs through the state picking up 60 per cent of payroll costs while the employer must foot the bill for the rest.
Between March 2020 and June 15 this year, Bulgaria’s government has paid out more than 1.27 billion leva (close to 653 million euro), according to figures released on July 2 by the Finance Ministry.
The Cabinet statement did not give an estimate regarding the cost of extending the measure until the end of the year.
The scheme has now been tweaked and employers are eligible to receive 60 per cent of payroll costs as state compensation if their sales revenue has dropped by more than 40 per cent of the average monthly revenue for 2020.
In cases where that decline is more than 30 per cent, the employers will receive 50 per cent of payroll costs as state compensation, the Cabinet statement said.
(Photo: government.bg)
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