BGN 30 million will be used to help bus carriers deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was announced by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Rosen Zhelyazkov during the official signing of the grant agreement under the measure “Support for SMEs operating bus services, to overcome the economic consequences of COVID-19 by implementing a scheme for assistance from the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications ”. The document was initialed by Transport, Information Technology and Communications Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and Economy Minister Lachezar Borisov.
In recent months, BGN 193 million have been redirected to the Operational Program “Innovation and Competitiveness” from OP “Transport and Transport Infrastructure” to support micro, small and medium enterprises. We held the necessary talks with the European Commission and received notification of a specific measure, which will allocate BGN 30 million to provide operating capital for bus carriers. MTITC is a beneficiary of the grant and will administer the grant. In order to speed up the implementation of this process and for the funds to reach the bus carriers as quickly as possible, the candidates will not be evaluated, but will only be considered for admissibility, “said Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov. According to him, the enterprises in the sector are 1485, and not less than 1000 will benefit from the measure in the next one to two months.
The Minister clarified that the minimum amount of funds to be granted is BGN 3,000, and the maximum is BGN 450,000 grant, and the distribution will be based on the turnover of companies.