Covid-19, Crisis, Financial Services, Latvia

It has also been decided to provide downtime pay to employees of those companies that do not meet the tax payment criteria.  

The Welfare Ministry's spokesman Janis Zarins told LETA that the decision on the minimum downtime benefit means that each idled employee will receive at least EUR 130 in downtime pay and that support would also be provided to those employees whose employers have been refused the benefits.

In such cases, the State Revenue Service will forward information to the State Social Insurance Agency, which will disburse the downtime benefits of EUR 130 to each employee, plus EUR 50 for each child. 

Welfare Minister Ramona Petravica (KPV LV) stressed that she proposed coalition partners solutions aimed at providing crisis aid to people who have been denied downtime benefits and those who have been granted meager sums in downtime pay, insufficient to survive on. 

The minister said that the small downtime benefits calculated by the Revenue Service suggest that some employers, apparently, have not been paying their taxes in full. 

"We quickly proposed new solutions to make sure nobody is left without support," Petravica said.

The Cabinet is expected to decide on the support proposals this Thursday, April 23.

As reported, the government will look for ways to improve the regulation for downtime benefits, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity) said in an interview to Latvian Television today.