Call for business to apply for partial compensation of interest

The Ministry of Economy has published a call for businesses to submit applications for partial compensation of interest. In total, up to EUR 21.7 million is to be financed for companies from the European Union (EU) Structural Funds.

"During this financing period, partial financing of interest will vary across regions: depending on the type of the loan, companies established in municipalities other than Vilnius, Kaunas or Klaipėda municipalities will be eligible to receive financing for a larger portion of interest paid by them," Evaldas Gustas, Minister of Economy, says.

The Minister of Economy notes a new feature during this financing period: industrial companies may also apply for financing of interest. Industrial companies, which have undergone an energy consumption audit and intend to invest according to the energy efficiency improvement measures suggested for the company in the energy consumption audit report, will be eligible for partial financing of interest on loans or leasing agreements.

Financing of interest is available to micro, small and medium-sized businesses or industrial companies which signed or will sign a financing agreement with a credit institution no earlier than 1 October 2015 and will pay (paid) interest between 1 October 2015 and 30 September 2023.

Depending on the type of financing agreement, micro, small and medium-sized businesses may qualify for the financing of 50–95% of interest paid to financial institutions in the period of 36 months. Industrial companies will be eligible to receive financing for up to 100% of interest paid in the period of 60 months.

The total amount of de minimis aid per company may not exceed EUR 200,000 in the period of 3 financial years (EUR 100,000 in the period of three fiscal years for road transport companies).

The applicants that signed loan or financial lease (leasing) agreements with a financial institution between 1 October 2015 and 29 February 2016 must submit their applications to INVEGA by 31 May 2016. Otherwise these applicants will not be able to recover interest paid to the financial institution since 1 October 2015 and financing of interest will be available from the date of submission of the application to INVEGA.

Applications for partial financing of interest can be submitted by companies to INVEGA by 31 October 2020 and interest is to be financed until 30 September 2023. For further information, please see http://ukmin.lrv.lt/lt/veiklos-sritys/es-parama-1/2014-2020-m/2014-2020m-galiojantys-kvietimai and http://www.esinvesticijos.lt/paskelbti_kvietimai.

The aim of the partial financing of interest measure implemented in 2014–2020 is to reduce the financial burden of companies which have outstanding loans to credit institutions or fulfil obligations under financial lease (leasing) agreements and additionally promote the development of companies. This measure has been designed according to the measure of partial financing of interest implemented in 2007–2013 which raised significant interest among large businesses.

The funds earmarked for the measure of partial financing of interest were disbursed under 5,027 decisions on interest financing in 2007–2013. In total, EUR 17.67 million in EU support was disbursed to micro and medium-sized businesses.

 

Information of the Ministry of Economy