Background information

On 4 May 2020, Order No 4-275 of the Minister for the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania came into force in Lithuania to approve the state-aid scheme and description of the terms of the instrument “Partial compensation of lease payments for businesses most affected by COVID-19”. The instrument provides for partial compensation of lease payments during quarantine and for at least 60 days thereafter to businesses most affected by COVID-19

Content of measure

Partial compensation of lease payments is provided to the companies most affected by COVID-19, whose annual income in 2019 did not exceed €50 million or the carrying amount of assets did not exceed €43 million as of 31 December 2019, and to entrepreneurs whose activities were prohibited or restricted during the quarantine period.

Other eligibility requirements:

• the legal entity was not a firm in difficulty as of 31 December 2019;
• the legal entity was registered with the Register of Legal Entities or the entrepreneur started business activities no later than on 16 March 2020;
• upon submission of the application, the legal entity (except for applicants who are entrepreneurs) must have been submitted a set of annual financial statements for the year 2019 to the Centre of Registers State Enterprise;
• the legal entity must have concluded a lease agreement with the lessor, signed no later than on 15 March 2020, which is valid and registered with the Centre of Registers State Enterprise at the time of submitting the application;
• the legal entity benefits from at least a 30% monthly rental discount provided by the lessor after the introduction of quarantine (at least a 15% monthly rental discount for March 2020) (during the compensation period, the monthly rental agreed between the applicant and the lessor is compared to the rentals valid in February 2020).

The maximum possible amount of compensation of lease payments per month is 50%. Partial compensation of lease payments is provided to cover costs of rent or lease services incurred by the applicant during the compensation period (i.e. from 16 March 2020 until for at least 60 calendar days after the end of the quarantine period). The rest of the costs shall be covered by the legal entity itself.

Use of measure

According to the data provided by the administering agency (Invega), on 20 September 2020, about €23.51 million was already allocated to compensations for lease payments. A total of 6,120 applications have been received, of which 1,126 are being processed, 702 – returned for being revised, 1,152 – denied, and 3,140 – approved

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Social partners jointly Public support service providers	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

No information available.

Views and reactions

Social partners consulted only ad hoc, the tripartite meeting was not held.

Sources

• 03 May 2020: Order No 4-275 of the Minister for the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania (LR ekonomikos ir inovacijų ministro įsakymas Nr. 4-275) (e-seimas.lrs.lt)