teaha2020

IMM INVEST Romania – change methodological norms

Government Decision (HG) no.206 on amending and supplementing GD no.282 / 2020 for the approval of the Methodological Norms for the application of EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no.110 / 2017 on the Program for supporting small and medium enterprises and small enterprises with market capitalization average – IMM INVEST ROMANIA was published in the Official Gazette no. 153 of February 15, 2022.

The promotion of the amendments took place in the context of the amendments and completions brought by the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 110/2017 by the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 142/2021 (MO no. 1249 / 30.12.2021).

Basically, it was necessary to correlate the provisions of the secondary legislation related to the Program, by introducing at the level of application norms the amendments and completions brought by EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 142/2021, as well as the regulation of some situations in the implementation of the Program.

Thus, according to HG 206/2022, were included, throughout the normative act, in the case of the AGRO IMM INVEST Subprogram, in addition to FNGCIMM (National Credit Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises – SA – IFN), FGCR (Fund of Rural Credit Guarantee IFN – SA) as administrator of the state aid scheme, which will have a special mandate granted by the Romanian state through the Ministry of Finance for granting guarantees in the name and on behalf of the state within the AGRO IMM INVEST Subprogram.

In addition, the provisions of the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 142/2021 were transposed, at the level of norms, which extended the validity of the state aid scheme in the sense that the period until which the beneficiaries can be selected and guarantee contracts can be issued / The financing agreements will be until June 30, 2022, and the payment of the grant will be made until June 30, 2023, inclusive.

              We specify the fact that by HG no. 206/2022, a series of practical aspects were also regulated, arising from the practice of granting state guarantees within the Program / Subprogram, such as:

  • completing the provision regarding the facilitation and efficiency of the process of issuing additional documents related to the value of interest subsidized by FNGCIMM / FGCR, as appropriate, by introducing the centralized transmission of the new value of interest, at the level of each financier, through centralized reports, which reducethe risk of omission of some beneficiaries and whose model will be standardized at the level of the Guarantee and Payment Agreement concluded with the financiers;
  • the possibility of extending, once, the credits / lines of credit, in order to eliminate the interpretations regarding the maximum number of extensions that can be granted within a credit / lines of credit for financing the working capital, as in the text existing this can be interpreted, being mentioned only the maximum period for which the extension can be granted, respectively 36 months;
  • the inclusion of a provision regarding the exemption from the fulfillment of the legal formalities for advertising the collateral guarantees for which the law does not provide for the performance of such formalities, by adding some examples, but not limited to them, such as promissory note and surety, aspect resulting from the practice of guarantee execution;
  • completing the provision regarding the situation in which a real estate investment is financed by the Program, and on the land on which the asset financed by the loan guaranteed under the Program is built, based on the guarantee contract, a legal mortgage is established on this property / surface right.on the future construction, financed by the Program, with the mention regarding the existence of the property right / surface of the beneficiary on the land
  • introduction of a provision regarding the verification by FNGCIMM of the inclusion in the annual / total budget of the state aid scheme, in case of sliding the guarantee limits from the IMM INVEST ROMANIA Program, to the AGRO IMM INVEST Subprogram, for reasons related to the need for verificationcompliance with the approved budget provisions;
  • the possibility of sliding the guarantee limit also in the sense of increasing the limit allocated within the SME INVEST ROMANIA Program, from the limit allocated within the AGRO IMM INVEST Subprogram, at the proposal of FNGCIMM, in order to satisfy, depending on the needs, the guarantee needs of the financing beneficiaries.within both components of the Program, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, ensuring a maximum degree of consumption of the guarantee limits allocated within the Program, respectively to the Subprogram;
  • regulation of the allocation, in 2022, of the limit related to the AGRO IMM INVEST Subprogram, equally, FNGCIMM and FGCR;
  • completing the CAEN codes related to the activities that can be admitted to financing-guarantee within the Program, by including the CAEN code 6622 for aligning the provisions of the norms to the intention of the legislator to include the activity of insurance agents and brokers within the activities eligible for accessing the IMM INVEST ROMANIA Program
  • completing the documentation submitted by the credit institution upon request of the guarantee with the documentation showing the verification by the credit institution of the beneficiary’s classification in the SME category, or, as the case may be, in the category of small enterprises with medium market capitalization.the practice of granting state guarantees within the Program;
  • legislating the cases exempted from the guarantee related to investment loans, respectively the purchase of software, licenses, spaces for residential use or located in buildings declared historical monuments at the time of purchase, considering the fact that software and licenses are not insurable goods, the acquisition of residential spaces contradicts the purpose of the Program, and the residential spaces in the buildings declared historical monuments are difficult to capitalize in the situation of a forced execution;
  • modification of the provision regarding the possibility for FNGCIMM / FGCR, as the case may be, to verify the eligibility of the beneficiary regarding its registration in the Payment Incident Center based on data provided by an integrated financial services provider with which they have or may conclude a supply contractof data;
  • Mandating FNGCIMM / FGCR for issuing the agreement regarding the sale of real estate / movable assets that constitute both conventional guarantees and legal mortgages, only with the cumulative fulfillment of the condition that the beneficiary will use in full the amounts obtained by sale to repay the loan guaranteed under the Program/ Subprogramme, as the case may be, and keeping the minimum degree of credit coverage with guarantees of at least 100% in the case of investment loans;in case the amounts obtained from the sale exceed the balance of the non-reimbursed loan, the difference is reimbursed to the beneficiary of the financing;
  • introduction of a provision regarding the possibility for credit institutions to approve restructurings of the guaranteed credit for the beneficiaries of the Program who encounter financial difficulties, provided that they meet the maximum terms initially approved;
  • elimination of the obligation of verification by FNGCIMM / FGCR, as the case may be, at the moment of analyzing the payment request submitted by the credit institution, of the fulfillment by the Program beneficiary of the eligibility criterion regarding the presentation of collateral guarantees at the time of requesting the state guarantee payment.this criterion is verified at the time of granting the state guarantee;
  • completing the credit institution’s declaration, necessary at the time of submitting the payment request to FNGCIMM / FGCR, regarding the beneficiary’s compliance with the use of credits under the Program / Subprogram, with a detail of the operations verified by the credit institution in order to comply with the credit destination. to the beneficiary;
  • amending and supplementing the provisions regarding legal mortgages and other collateral, in case of contestation or not by the credit institution of the rejection of the request for payment of the guarantee by FNGCIMM / FGCR, as the case may be, in the sense that legal mortgages and other collateral are consolidates in favor of the credit institutions from the date of final settlement of the case by the court or at the request of the credit institution which expressly states that it does not contest in court the rejection of the request for payment of the guarantee communicated by FNGCIMM / FGCR, after case, this regulation deriving from the possibility of appearing some litigations initiated by the credit institution after the rejection of the payment request by FNGCIMM / FGCR, as the case may be.

Legal basis:

– HG 206 on amending and supplementing the Government Decision no. 282/2020 for the approval of the Methodological Norms for the application of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 110/2017 on the Program for supporting small and medium enterprises and small enterprises with medium market capitalization – IMM INVEST ROMANIA;

– EMERGENCY ORDINANCE 142/2021 for the modification and completion of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 110/2017 on the Support Program for Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Enterprises with Medium Market Capitalization – SME INVEST ROMANIA, to amend the State Aid Scheme to support the activity of SMEs in the context of the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, approved by art. II of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 42/2020, for the amendment of art. III of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 16/2021 for the amendment and completion of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 110/2017 on the Support Program for Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Enterprises with Medium Market Capitalization – SME INVEST ROMANIA, as well as for amending and supplementing the State Aid Scheme to support the activity of SMEs in the context of the economic crisis generated by the pandemic COVID-19, approved by art. II of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 42/2020, as well as for the amendment of art. 164 para. (2 ^ 1) and (2 ^ 2) of Law no. 53/2003 – Labor Code.