Anti-crisis Shield

Since March 2020, that is, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Poland, we have been in constant dialogue with entrepreneurs. Many of them have been covered by our support instruments. The package of solutions announced by the government to protect the Polish state and citizens from the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has taken the form and name of Anti-crisis Shield. So far, it resulted in directing more than 172 billion Polish zlotys to the entrepreneurs. This included:

• 33% of the money directed to the trade-related industry
• 24% to the industrial sector,
• 15% to the construction industry.
• Financial Shield from the Polish Development Fund

In cooperation with the Polish Development Fund (PFR), we have prepared Financial Shield, which is one of the most important elements in the fight against the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Among the several solutions available, direct financial support for entrepreneurs is the cornerstone of government aid programmes.

The value of the programme is about 100 billion zlotys acquired at market conditions through the issuance of bonds guaranteed by the State Treasury. In April this year, the first payments under the Financial Shield were made to entrepreneurs affected by the negative economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to today, nearly 347,000 entrepreneurs, employing about 3.2 million employees, have benefited from the aid. The most important objective, i.e. the protection of jobs, was achieved through the cooperation of the Polish Development Fund and the Ministry of Economic Development, Labour and Technology (then known as the Ministry of Development). This is confirmed by the relatively low level of unemployment and a higher level of professional activity (compared to 2019). The system supporting this programme proceeded to payments almost immediately after the application was submitted, providing Polish entrepreneurs with the aid of nearly 61 billion zlotys. Work is in now underway to prepare further payments and the next edition of the programme – support for entrepreneurs from particularly impacted sectors, known as PFR 2.0 Financial Shield.

Industry Shield

The so-called Industry Shield, adopted by the parliament on December 9, is an aid package for nearly 40 sectors most affected by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. If necessary, the government will be able to decide on extension of support to entrepreneurs. It will also be possible to make the shield cover further sectors.

The main aid solutions from the Industrial Shield are:

• exemption from social insurance institution (ZUS) contributions — exemption from payment of contributions due for the period from 1 November 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the possibility of extension for subsequent months and for subsequent industries,
• one-off supplementary downtime benefit for persons who, as at 30 September 2020, have carried out one of the specified activities, with the possibility to extend it for subsequent months and for subsequent industries,
• subsidy for micro and small enterprises: the amount of support will be up to 5,000 zlotys,
• co-financing of salaries and wages of employees in the amount of 2,000 zlotys for 3 months,
• suspension of the fair fee in 2021 – this solution will make the entrepreneurs save a total of 139 million zlotys; the law provides for compensation to municipalities, paid from the COVID-19 Countermeasure Fund, for income lost due to the absence of the fair fee in 2021.

From 19 December, i.e. from the time when the rules contained in the Industry Shield became applicable, until the end of December 2020:

• applications for a grant of up to 5,000 zlotys to cover current business costs were submitted by 40,141 entrepreneurs,
• applications to receive 2,000 zlotys of salaries and wages co-financing were submitted by 5,534 entrepreneurs.

Our estimates suggest that about 240,000 entrepreneurs have benefited from this non-repayable form of aid. In total, we allocated for both instruments over 3 billion zlotys on a monthly basis.

Protection of jobs

We have prepared a package of special legal solutions for entrepreneurs and employees who suffer from the adverse economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The regional labour offices have already granted financial support for the amount of 11.9 billion zlotys and the district labour offices have provided support for the amount of 15.5 billion zlotys. This gives a total of 27.4 billion zlotys spent on the protection of about 6.5 million jobs.

As part of the instruments included in the Anti-crisis Shield, by mid-December this year:

1.7 million jobs covered by economic downtime and reduced working time were supported by funding from the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund for the amount of 6.8 billion zlotys;

1.2 million jobs were protected with support from the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund as part of job protection benefits for the amount of more than 5.1 billion zlotys;

1.9 million micro-entrepreneurs were granted loans worth 9.3 billion zlotys;

1.4 million employees received assistance within the co-financing of part of employee wage costs in the amount of 4.5 billion zlotys;

0.3 million of self-employed persons received subsidies for part of the costs of conducting business activities for the amount of 1.7 billion zlotys.

Polish Tourist Voucher

The programme started on 1 August 2020 and will run until 31 March 2022. The expected support for the tourism industry within this instrument will reflect over 3.5 billion zlotys. It is to be used by about 6.5 million children throughout Poland. By December 31, 1.1 million vouchers with a total value of 971 million zlotys have been granted. As much as 324,000 payments have been registered with a voucher, reflecting total value of 238 million zlotys. Over 18,000 business entities have registered themselves as accepting this kind of payment.

Tourist Voucher is an aid dedicated to both the Polish families and the Polish tourism industry, which has been particularly affected by the pandemic. The introduction of the Voucher will support tourist enterprises that offer products (services, service packages) addressed to this group of clients. The Voucher is intended to increase the level of public tourist activity and to change the way in which leisure time is spent.
 

Small ZUS Plus

Small ZUS Plus is a very good solution especially for the smallest businesses that do report big revenue. This benefit can be granted to entrepreneurs who have been active for at least 60 days in the year (when the activity has not been carried out throughout the year, the revenue limit shall be proportionate to the duration of the activity)

This is a voluntary option allowing to pay lower social security contributions, depending on the amount of income earned one year ago. Throughout January 2021, persons conducting sole proprietorship whose revenues for 2020 do not exceed 120,000 zlotys will still be able to make declarations regarding the payment of the Small ZUS Plus.

More than 280,000 companies have already benefited from this solution in 2020. It is estimated that entrepreneurs will thus be able to save more than 1 billion zlotys next year.

Housing package

A set of solutions to support housing development. It also includes changes in the field of the construction law that will allow for the digitisation of many procedures. Development impulse for the economy impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The amenities that will be introduced as part of the housing package include: 

Additives for housing allowances:

1. payments may be granted to tenants and subtenants of dwellings,
2. payments will amount to a maximum of 1,500 zlotys per month (75% of rent) and will be paid for 6 months,
3. Applications may be submitted no later than on 31 March 2021. Payments shall be financed from the COVID-19 Countermeasure Fund.

Social tenant housing:

1. Higher grants from the Subsidy Fund to municipalities for participation in construction with SIM/TBS housing initiatives from 20% to 35%,
2. Renovation premiums for SIM/TBS buildings older than 20 years,
3. Support for municipalities to establish SIM/TBS initiatives; new Government Housing Development Fund.

Public housing projects:

1. increase in financial support (purchase cost: from 35%-55% to 50%-80%),
2. increase in expenditure on the renovation of an existing resource of municipal buildings which, due to technical conditions, are not in use,
3. financing of common areas dedicated to senior citizens.

Housing saving booklets:

1. addition of new spending titles for obtaining a guarantee premium (e.g. a thermomodernisation project or a perpetual usufruct fee),
2. introduction of a mechanism for registering a housing saving booklet with a bank providing account servicing for further steps to establish a closed time frame for paying budgetary expenditure for reimbursement of guarantee premiums.

The ability to settle certain categories of building law issues on-line:

1. request for derogation from technical building rules,
2. notification of construction works (when they do not require attaching projects),
3. applications for demolition permit, as well as demolition notifications.

Digitisation of business administration services

Our aim is also to promote on-line business services and to encourage the provision of administrative services by electronic means. We manage the CEIDG registry and the biznes.gov.pl website.

The following data best illustrate our achievements so far:

• compared to the previous year, the number of page views of biznes.gov.pl increased by 68.6%; (46.8 million in 2020 compared to 27.8 million in 2019),
• in 2020, CEIDG received 557,600 requests for data changes that were submitted on-line. Compared to last year, this is an increase of nearly 52%. At the same time, the share of on-line applications in this category reflects 47% (compared to 28% in 2019),
• the CEIDG registry received 75,000 applications for setting up business activity that were submitted on-line. This is 77% more (42,300) than in the corresponding period of the previous year. At the same time, the share of electronic applications in this category rose from 14% (on average) to 30% on average this year,
• biznes.gov.pl on-line services: 338,000 applications filed to the offices on-line via the portal. Compared to last year, this is an increase of nearly 300% (85,000). The most popular services include:

1. certificates of no tax arrears,
2. changing company data in CEIDG,
3. tax services.  

With a relatively similar number of applications for registering economic activity in Poland, we have seen a significant and sustained trend over the past 8 years in the use of the electronic channel for registering companies. In 2012, only 2% of new business was registered on-line, while in 2020 this concerns more than a third of new business. In the period of the spring lockdown, however, the number of applications filed on-line reached more than 60%. This shows that the CEIDG registry, as well as the entire Internet infrastructure, works well on-line, eliminating the need to visit the office personally.