Granting of micro-grants from non-reimbursable funds – Measure 1

In the Official Gazette (Part I) no. 989 of October 15, 2021, the MEAT Order no. 1642/2021 was published; on the approval of the Procedure for the implementation of session no. 2 related to the measure “Microgrants granted from non-reimbursable external funds, within the state aid scheme established Emergency Ordinance (OUG) no. 130/2020 regarding some measures for granting financial support from non-reimbursable external funds, related to the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020, in the context of the crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as other measures in the field European funds.

The main objective of the state aid scheme is to provide financial support from non-reimbursable external funds, related to the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020 (POC), in the context of the crisis caused by COVID-19, for beneficiaries whose activity has been affected by the spread of the virus. SARS-CoV-2 or whose activity has been prohibited by military ordinances during the state of emergency or restricted during the state of alert

The validity of the measure is established by the Temporary Framework for State Aid Measures to Support the Economy in the Context of the current COVID-19 epidemic, approved by the European Commission, and payments under the measure will be made by December 31, 2023.

Beneficiaries of state aid under the measure:

The single enterprise includes all enterprises between which there is at least one of the following relationships:

  1. an enterprise holds a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of another enterprise;

  2. an enterprise has the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of another enterprise;

  3. an enterprise has the right to exercise a dominant influence over another enterprise under a contract entered into with the enterprise in question or under a provision of the company contract or its articles of association;

  4. an enterprise which is a shareholder or associate of another enterprise and which alone controls, on the basis of an agreement with other shareholders or associates of that enterprise, the majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of the respective enterprise.

 

Undertakings which maintain, with one or more undertakings, the relationships referred to in points (a) to (d) shall be considered as sole proprietorships.

The micro-grants are granted on the basis of a contract for granting state aid concluded with the following categories of beneficiaries:

  1. micro-enterprises, small enterprises and medium-sized enterprises that prove through their financial statements that they do not have employees with an individual employment contract as of December 31, 2019;

  2. PFA / Individual enterprises / Family enterprises, other professionals, as regulated by art.3 paragraph (2) of Law no.287 / 2009 on the Civil Code, republished, with subsequent amendments, which carry out liberal professions regulated by acts with the force of law and Non-Governmental Organizations (ONG) with economic activity in one of the fields of activity provided in annex no. 1 to OUG no. 130/2020, with subsequent amendments and completions.

We mention that the ONGs will upload in the electronic application the document attesting the economic activity for which they request financing.

The liberal professions will upload in the electronic application the document attesting the correspondence of the activity of the profession with the CAEN code according to the classification of the activities in the national economy approved by the Order of the president of the National Institute of Statistics no. 337/2007.

PFA / CMI, if they were involved in the transport, equipment, evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, who did not benefit from the medical incentive granted based on the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 43/2020 for the approval of some support measures settled from European funds, as a result of the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, during the state of emergency, approved with modifications and completions by Law no. 82/2020.

We specify that the proof of involvement in the activities related to COVID-19, but also for not granting the medical incentive is done by completing a certificate and uploading it in the registration application, issued by the health unit where the beneficiary provided the service / county public health directorate, as the case.

Verification of the beneficiaries’ classification in the SME category is performed, based on a 1% sample by MEAT / AIMMAIPE, after submitting the financing application and concluding the financing contracts, provided that the support is recovered from non-reimbursable external funds if the beneficiary does not fall into the SME category. at the date of submitting the financing application, except for PFA and CMI. If the error rate is over 2% of the sample, the sample is increased by 0.5% to a maximum of 2%.

Micro-grants are granted, on the basis of a contract for granting state aid, to beneficiaries who meet the following cumulative conditions:

  1. have carried out current / operational activity before the date of submitting the financing application, at least from 2019, except for PFA / CMI for which the beginning of the activity may have taken place until February 1, 2020;

  2. respects the condition from art. 6, letter b) of the Emergency Ordinance no. 130/2020, with subsequent amendments and completions, regarding some measures for granting financial support from non-reimbursable external funds, related to the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020, in the context of the crisis caused by COVID-19, except for the state aid beneficiaries provided in art. 3.2 paragraph (1), letter b) and c) of this procedure;

  3. maintain their activity for a period of at least 6 months from the granting of the form of support in the form of microgrant;

  4. were not in difficulty on December 31, 2019;

  5. do not exceed the maximum ceiling imposed by the Temporary Framework for State Aid Measures to Support the Economy in the context of the current COVID-19 epidemic approved by the European Commission;

 

Important! Applicants who participated in the first session of the measure “Microgrants granted from external non-reimbursable funds” and were not paid, as well as the beneficiaries of the first measure who were paid and reimbursed in full the amount of the grant until the agreement is signed, are also eligible during this session. financing for this session, if the reimbursement of the amounts received was not made as a result of an irregularity / fraud.

Applicants who participated in the financing under measure 2 “Working capital grants” and were not paid, as well as the beneficiaries of measure 2 “Working capital grants” who were paid and reimbursed in full are eligible for this session; the amount of the grant until the moment of signing the financing agreement related to the present session, if the reimbursement of the amounts received was not made as a result of an irregularity / fraud.

Beneficiaries who received funding without reimbursing the amount of the grant or are to receive funding in the first session related to measure 1 “Microgrants awarded from non-reimbursable external funds” are not eligible in the second session.

Beneficiaries who have received without reimbursement the amount of the grant or are to receive funding under measure 2 “Working capital grants” are not eligible for the second session related to measure 1 “Micro-grants from non-reimbursable external funds”.

Types of financial aid:

The Measure finances, in the order of submitting the financing application, a non-reimbursable Financial Aid in the form of a lump sum – maximum 2000 euro / beneficiary, at the InforEuro exchange rate valid in September 2020, respectively 4.8395 lei / 1 euro, the amount that can represent 100 % of the amount of eligible expenditure related to the measure.

The object of the financing must fall into one or more of the following eligible categories:

  1. expenses regarding the stocks of raw materials, materials, goods, as well as other categories of stocks necessary for the current / operational activity carried out by the beneficiaries;

  2. current and overdue debts to current suppliers, including to utility providers according to concluded contracts;

  3. expenses regarding the rent based on a concluded contract, for the registered office / work point / points where the activity is carried out;

  4. expenses regarding the acquisition of services and repairs necessary for the basic current activity, except for the consulting services, studies and other categories of indirect services with the current activity;

  5. expenses regarding medical protection equipment, including disinfection materials for protection against the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus;

  6. expenses regarding the acquisition of inventory objects, including inventory objects of the nature of the fixed assets necessary for the resumption of the current activity;

  7. expenses regarding the acquisition of equipment, machinery, installations, technologies, independent endowments necessary for the resumption of the activity;

  8. expenses regarding the payment of debts to the state budget. (expenses such as taxes and duties to the state budget, including salary contributions, CAS, CASS, dividend tax, income tax on micro-enterprises, profit tax, other obligations to pay to the state budget. Regarding the contributions due for PFA, II , IF, taxes and fees on CNP are also eligible). Taxes and levies on local budgets and fines of any kind are not eligible.

 

The beneficiaries of microgrants will give a declaration on their own responsibility in the registration application by which they will assume that the use of microgrants for purposes other than those provided by this emergency ordinance entails the recovery of state aid granted together with the payment of accessories for recovery of state aid.

Expenses related to net salaries, acquisitions of second-hand goods are not eligible, acquisitions in the leasing system are not allowed, and expenses with the rent of tangible assets are not eligible, except for the expenses regarding the rent based on a concluded contract, for the registered office / points of sale where the activity takes place.

Value added tax expense is eligible if it is irrecoverable.

For the settlement of debts are also eligible the invoices issued prior to the signing of the contract, but not older than February 1, 2020, which will be paid from the micro-grant granted within the measure, after the date of signing the financing contract.

Expenditure on consultancy is not eligible under this measure.

Registration for session 2 for microgranules will be done in two distinct stages:

Stage 1 – pre-registration, October 18 – October 24 – profile, user and password creation, where applicants will register with electronic signature, both the data of the legal representative / proxy and the data of the beneficiary himself. The Ministry of Economy will announce the moment from which the profiles can be made (“The e-mail address must belong to the beneficiary and be found in all documentation, the same address will be used for all correspondence throughout the implementation and monitoring of program ”, writes in the procedure). Basically, the pre-registration period is addressed to those who did not already have an account in the ministry’s application.

Pre-registrations can be made by accessing this link:

https://granturi.imm.gov.ro/auth/login

Stage 2 the actual registration, which starts on October 25 and ends on November 23 – in which the applicants, with the profile, user, and password generated in the first Stage, will complete and submit the registration form.

“The relaunch of measure 1 will take place on October 25, 2021, starting with 10:00, for 30 calendar days from the start of registration, until 20:00 of the last day of registration, with the possibility of extending the deadline until when the budget is exhausted “, according to a recent communiqué of the Ministry of Economy.

Applicants have the obligation to follow the information regarding the support measure posted on the ministry’s website throughout the implementation period (registration, verification, clarifications, contract signing, submission of progress report documents, uploading expense documents, making payments, monitoring, reporting) , as well as in the account created upon registration, hereinafter referred to as front office (FO).

Legal basis:

  • https://granturi.imm.gov.ro/

  • MEAT Order 1642/2021 regarding the approval of the Procedure for implementing the session no. 2 related to the measure “Microgrants granted from non-reimbursable external funds” within the state aid scheme established by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 130/2020 on some measures for providing financial support from non-reimbursable external funds, related to the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020, in the context of the crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as other measures in the field of European funds.