Romanian tour operators demand 5% VAT and state aid to weather the crisis

The association of Romanian tour operators, ANAT, argues that the Romanian authorities should adopt a state aid scheme dedicated to travel agencies similar to those implemented by other states within the European Union.

ANAT outlines five measures the Government should consider to help them weather the crisis that is longer than initially expected. Otherwise, tens of thousands of jobs and related tax revenues will disappear, the tour operators warned.

ANAT representatives also said many travelers would lose their vacations and the money paid in advance if major tour operators went bankrupt, which might be the case unless they got help.

The tour operators complained that they could not apply the other schemes designed by the Government to support Romanian firms for specific reasons. Firstly, the tour operators couldn't benefit from technical unemployment subsidies since they were busy settling the canceled holidays; therefore, they could not send their employees home, Adevarul reported. ANAT representatives also complained about the IMM Invest program's conditions, under which Romanian companies can get Government backed-loans for working capital and investments.

The five requests outlined by ANAT include a lower VAT rate (5%) for tourism services, grants in the amount of the taxes paid by the tour operators in 2019, more holiday vouchers for budgetary employees, a longer kurzarbeit period, and state guarantees for the vouchers handed by the tour operators to their customers in exchange for the lost holidays.

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