Benidorm finalizes the bases of the ‘Parenthesis Aids’, aimed at sectors affected by the pandemic

Benidorm City Council is finalizing the bases that will govern the ‘Parenthesis Grants’, aimed at productive sectors affected by the pandemic with fiscal domicile in the city and which are framed within the so-called ‘Resist Plan’. The mayor, Toni Pérez, has transferred the draft of these bases to the groups of the Corporation today, which "will be addressed tomorrow in the Board of Spokespersons with the aim of being able to approve them this week."

The mayor recalled that “the City Council formalized on February 1 its adherence to this aid program, which is co-financed by local entities, Provincial Councils and the Generalitat Valenciana; to which we are going to contribute about 790,000 euros; and to which self-employed workers, mutualists and small companies with up to 10 employees from the sectors established by the decree of the regional government can attend ”.

These "Parenthesis Aids provide benefits of 2,000 euros for each self-employed person or micro-company that meets the requirements established in the bases, with improvement tranches of 200 euros per employee affiliated with Social Security as of December 31, 2020". The objective of this aid is the same as "the one that has motivated the different lines of aid launched by the City Council since the health crisis began: to collaborate with the maintenance of current or habitual expenses that these businesses have continued to bear during these months of pandemic despite the lack or decrease of income, thus contributing to its economic viability ”.

According to the calculations of the Valencian government, "Benidorm is the fifth city in the region with the highest volume of business and establishments affected by the pandemic and by the restrictive measures adopted to stop the advance of Covid-19", such as the closure perimeter of the region or the hospitality industry. In this regard, the mayor has pointed out that “when we have a large business and commercial fabric, a large service sector and, fundamentally, the most powerful tourist industry concentrated throughout the Valencian territory, in good logic Benidorm presents numbers of affectation in these moments that far surpass other cities with more population ”.

Based on these calculations, the financial allocation for companies and professionals in Benidorm within the ‘Parenthesis Grants’ amounts to just over 5.2 million euros, of which the City Council contributes 15%.

In the absence of approval and publication in the Official Gazette of the Province, Toni Pérez has advanced that both the application and the processing of these grants will be done “entirely electronically through the municipal Electronic Office (https: // headquarters .benidorm.org / home) ”.

Municipal aid to the productive fabric

The mayor has stressed that "attention to the productive fabric has been a constant since the first moments of the pandemic", which has resulted in "numerous measures and support aids aimed at maintaining activity and employment." Thus, he has referred to direct aid to the self-employed, SMEs and companies, which will be reissued this year with an initial allocation of 2.5 million euros; aid to trade; the suspension of the table and chair rate until December 31, 2021; aid linked to the receipt of garbage; those directed to the taxi sector; the Christmas Window Dressing contests and the current ‘BenidormTeEspera’; or the aid aimed at the housing fabric that is currently being outlined in relation to the IBI satisfied in 2020.

In total, Toni Pérez stressed, "throughout 2020 the extraordinary measures, programs and aid promoted by the City Council to inject economic resources into the productive fabric and into homes have meant an investment of more than 7 million euros" .