The Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the Law on the Emergency Measures to Provide Additional Liquidity to the Economy to Mitigate the Consequences of the COVID-19 Epidemic

The goals of the draft law are therefore to facilitate the position of companies in taking urgently needed liquidity bank loans, thereby contributing to maintaining economic stability in the country, preventing serious economic damage, maintaining jobs in companies, ensuring sufficient medium-term liquidity in the banking system and optimizing utilization. Otherwise, the already used fiscal space of the budget of the Republic of Slovenia. However, the revitalization of production will require additional financial instruments, in particular in the form of additional guarantees of the Republic of Slovenia for the borrowing of bank loans.

The amount of the individual guarantee for loans whose maturity may not exceed 5 years, granted after March 12, 2020, and by December 31, 2020 at the latest, will be 70% of the loan principal given to the large company and 80% of the loan principal given to the micro, small or medium-sized company. The total amount of guarantees issued by the Republic of Slovenia under this Act may not exceed two billion euros.

The Government also adopted the Bill amending the Intervention Measures Act to curb the COVID-19 epidemic and mitigate its consequences for citizens and the economy, further defining some of the ambiguities that have emerged in ZIUZEOP.

The new law introduces an additional relief for donations aimed at eliminating the consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic, for the total amount of payments made from 13 March 2020 on to a special transaction account of the Republic of Slovenia (or other EU Member States). The donation can be claimed up to the amount of the tax base.

The draft law also proposes an exemption of the VAT for protective and medical equipment as temporary measure with effect from March 13, 2020 up to and including July 31, 2020.

In accordance with the rules of the Temporary Framework for State Aid Measures, the provisions on deferred credit at banks and savings banks are also supplemented. In addition, the deadline for submitting the bank's request for fulfilment of the guarantee obligation is changed from six months to 12 months. Both the previous Law and this proposal of new law are by their nature temporary, regulating virus-related content (COVID-19). The measures are fixed until 31 May 2020, with the extension of the measures by 30 days if the epidemic is not cancelled by 15 May 2020.

Summary of some proposed changes to PKP1

Pending workers' compensation benefits are now also eligible:

• Employers whose average monthly revenue fell 10% (up to 20% so far) or more this year compared to the 2019 average monthly revenues as a result of the epidemic;

• Employers engaged in financial and insurance activities, group K according to the Standard Classification (SKD), if they have less than 10 employees;

• if they did not do business in 2019, employers will also be eligible for this measure if their average monthly revenue in 2020 relative to average monthly earnings in 2020 from 1 January 2020 to 12 March 2020 will be reduced by more than 10% due to the epidemic

The bill, which in substance is a temporary measure and complies with the principle of minimizing interference with applicable systemic solutions, will enter into force the next day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia. This bill will be submitted for adoption and consideration to the National Assembly by urgent procedure and will be discussed in Tuesday 28 April 2020.

Under the new proposal, Article 33 of the ZIUZEOP is exempted from Article 99 of the ZIUZEOP, which means that employers whose employees work throughout the epidemic must pay a crisis allowance to employees, while being exempt from all pension and disability insurance contributions. In the event that, from the entry into force of this Act, payment of profits, purchases of treasury shares or treasury shares, payments of remuneration to management or part of salaries for business performance to management paid in 2020 or for FY 2020 will not be required to inform the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia and it will not be necessary to return the funds received again. The same applies to employers who will claim reimbursement of wages due to force majeure. However, the provision regarding the repayment of received funds, together with interest on late payment, remains for those companies which will claim reimbursement of the salary for waiting for work and exemption from payment of contributions for waiting time (Article 28 of ZIUZEOP) and for exemption from payment of contributions for self-employed persons, religious officials, associates and farmers (Article 38 of ZIUZEOP).