Benidorm announces aid to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 in the taxi sector

The Local Government Board (JGL) today has approved a new line of aid to deal with the effects that Covid-19 has caused on the productive fabric of Benidorm. This new line is aimed "to support the taxi sector, and more specifically to the freelancers of taxi licenses or VTC with registered office in Benidorm", as reported by the mayor, Toni Pérez.

Toni Pérez has indicated that “as we have done recently with local businesses, we are now calling for these grants to contribute, as far as possible, to the recovery and maintenance of the activity of transporting people with car-taxi and employment it generates, injecting liquidity into a sector that has been clearly affected by the consequences of this health crisis ”. In fact, "public transport is one of the most damaged sectors nationwide."

The City Council is going to allocate 120,000 euros to this line of aid, with which taxi drivers with fiscal domicile in Benidorm who had to cease their activity as a result of the state of alarm, or who between March 14 and 19, can benefit. Since April they saw their billing reduced by at least 40% compared to the previous six months. In case that the applicant has not been registered for the six calendar months required to prove the reduction in income, the assessment will take into account the actual period of activity. Those who obtained a net return in 2019 above 50,000 euros will not be able to access these grants.

The mayor has indicated that "applicants who meet the requirements established in the bases approved today will receive a grant of 350 euros." Toni Pérez recalled that these bases must now be published in the Official Gazette of the Province (BOP), and then the application period will open.

Like the rest of the aid aimed at the productive fabric, the request will be processed electronically through the Website (https://sede.benidorm.org/) from the day following its publication in the BOP. Once opened, the application period will be extended for 10 working days.

The mayor has indicated that "these grants to the taxi sector are the first of new grants of a different nature that we are going to manage before the end of the year, as we advanced last week." To this line of action, other economic measures such as those already announced are added: suspension of the collection of the fee for the installation of tables and chairs throughout 2021; the freezing of municipal taxes, fees and public prices; and the declination on part of public positions and temporary personnel to the salary increase authorized by the Government of Spain.