Application period for State Aid Financing extended until 2023

Great news coming from The Ministry of Public Finance that  has announced a three-year extension of the GD 807/2014 financing measure,  between 500,000 EUR to 37.5 million EUR of EU funds for Start-ups, SMEs and big companies, the deadline being set to  December 31st, 2023.

According to the 4^threvision from the Applicant’s Guide¹developed for GD 807/2014 for the establishment of a State Aid scheme whose main objective is to stimulate the investments with a high impact on the economy, with changes and further additions,  a list of additional measures to support the applicants has been published - from Start-ups, SMEs to big companies / corporations.

REI Finance Advisors has selected the main changes that could help the beneficiaries access the grants through GD 807/2014 scheme:

• According to the new document, the “Standard of Cost” notion has been disposed of, therefore 10% of the value could be settled in  Bucharest area (up to 7.5 mln. EUR), 35% - Ilfov county and West (up to 26.25 mln. EUR), respectively 50% - the rest of the country areas (37.5 mln. EUR);

• No evidence of co-financing will be necessary to filing the project yet within 6 months from the financing agreement issue; Moreover, no evidence of the land will be necessary when filing the project, on condition  the land  be free of any fees, which will help a lot to obtain the financing agreements faster;

• The elimination of specific irrelevant quantitative indicators in the analysis process to enhance the flexibility for economic operators to access financing;

• The elimination of “The Impact of State Aid to competitive environment” quality indicator;

• The investment could be started right after the project has been filed at the Ministry of Finance - the State Aid department and right after carrying out the procurement procedure;

• Newly founded companies, with a minimum capital of 100,000 RON, are eligible but the administrator should not run the same activity in other entities;

“We invite the beneficiaries to analyze the non-reimbursable financing sources before starting any investment projects, especially for the time being - in these economic times, taking into consideration the fact that whatever  type of equipment is about to be bought with GD 807/2014 financing is no longer needed to be stated, yet only  the total value of it. In this new context, given the fact that there is no standard of cost anymore, hotels could be financed by start-ups or big companies, hospitals as well, other than production units, one of the biggest sectors that have accessed financing. Beneficiary’s obligations to obtain non-reimbursable financing are to keep the average numbers of employees that they have had in for the last year and to pay the taxes (salary taxes, profit taxes, local taxes etc.) equally to the given grant but strictly for the investments project, not for the whole company. Moreover, in the Applicant’s Guide there can be found the non-eligible activities. Production, HoReCa, Recycling, medical activities, slaughterhouses and food processing units or warehousing are GD 807/2014 eligible as well. New construction units / equipment acquisitions are also eligible, but not the refurbishment of existing buildings”, stated Roxana Mircea, partner REI Finance Advisors, one of the most dynamic consultancy agencies specialized in attracting EU funds or state aids for companies with local activity.

The main objective of the state aid scheme is to enhance regional development through investments in high-technology fixed assets into realising products with added value, no matter the size of the beneficiaries.

The total value of the investments project should be a minimum of 4.5 million RON. This value has been set and determined to approximately 1 million EUR (4,5 RON/EUR). That maximum allocated budget for this scheme is 4,070 million RON, approximately 925 million EUR.

“The submitting session is permanently open, which means that new projects can be submitted anytime. The evaluation session takes up to 4 months, but the companies can start the investment before getting the financial agreement, expenses being settled when the project obtains financing”, added Roxana Mircea.

1https://www.mfinante.gov.ro/static/10/Mfp/buget/sitebuget/ajutordestat/GhidulSolicitantuluiHG807Revizia4_08092020.pdf