NEW: COMPANIES CAN NOW REQUEST ONLINE AID FROM THE STATE The fairness of the application of the de minimis scheme - in question

Companies asking for de minimis aid can submit their applications online, the Ministry of Public Finance recently decided, in its revision of the Guide for the Government Decision which promotes a new de minimis scheme for small and medium enterprises.

Thus, the procedure for the online registration of the requests for the approval of the financing was introduced as a premiere in the Guide, after voices in the business sector considered that the de minimis scheme was discriminatory to certain companies.

After the initiative was approved by the Government, consultants in the field have estimated that the manner in which this aid scheme has been implemented violates the principle of equal opportunity, because the initial version of the law required the applicants to physically submit their documentation at the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) in Bucharest.

The first session for filing the necessary documents will take place between August 16th - October 31st, 2013, within the limit of the annual allocated budget. Immediately after the amounts have been exhausted, no more applications will be accepted by the system. The maximum budget for the de minimis aid scheme is over 400 million Euros, in other words less than 100 million Euros.

Consultants and potential beneficiaries are still skeptical that this scheme will be performed correctly for all those interested in the state aid, doubting the fairness in its execution.

"How will this application be used? Will the software be designed to show the hour of the login or will it allow the entry of dates before they start working? Will the entire budget be depleted in five minutes?", are a few of the questions that the quoted persons are asking themselves: "We expect that the money will be depleted in five minutes after 9:00 hours. That is what happened in 2010, when the POSCCE procedure was conducted (ed. note: the Sectoral Operational Program for Increasing Economic Competitiveness). At 09:00 and one second there were 60 registered firms, which just didn't make sense. We still doubt the fairness of the authorities".

Among the issues raised yesterday by the representatives of the companies present yesterday at a seminar on the issue, was also the question on how the de minimis aid will apply to companies that don't pay VAT, because the amounts granted do not include VAT. The question was not answered by the authorities.

Concerning the procedure for registering in this state aid scheme, after the Ministry of Public Finances will post the software on its website, the interested companies will need to enter their main information, as well as the amount of the requested de minimis aid. The applying company will subsequently receive a message confirming that the information has been submitted successfully, which will include the registration number of the request for financing and the web address where the receipt generated after the data was entered in the system can be found.

The applicants will receive the information about the period during which they can submit or send through the postal office or through other courier services the requests for agreement for financing, accompanied by the supporting documents, at the general registry of the Ministry of Public Finance.

If it is found that the annual allocated budget is not completely spent in one session, a new session will be opened by publishing on the website of the Ministry of Public Finances the date when the procedure for submitting applications will resume, as well as the available budget, according to the new Applicant's Guide.

This stipulates that the deadline for completing the evaluation of the request for financing is a maximum of 30 working days from the date it is complete, within the limits of the annual budget allocated to the aid scheme. Companies that benefit from de minimis aid will be required to start the investment for which the financing was approved within four months at the latest from the date the agreement for financing was received.

The de minimis aid is granted to SMEs in the form of grants from the state budget, equal to 100% of the total amount of the eligible expenses for which funding was approved, for a maximum amount equal to the equivalent in lei of 200,000 Euros or 100,000 Euros in the case of companies operating in the road transport sector, for a period of three consecutive fiscal years.

De minimis aid is not granted to companies operating in fishing and aquaculture; those operating in the primary production of agricultural products; companies that operate in the transformation and sale of agricultural products; for activities connected to the exportation to other countries or to EU member states; for using domestic goods instead of imported ones; to SMEs operating in the coal sector; for the acquisition of vehicles by companies that transport merchandise by road on behalf of third parties; to distressed companies.

The government decision concerning the new de minimis aid scheme for SMEs was approved in mid-May.

The state has already granted de minimis aids for SMEs, as part of a scheme of 100 million Euros, for the 2007-2011 period.

The authorities estimate that around 1,000 companies could benefit from a new de minimis aid scheme, which is estimated to lead to the creation of 6,000 jobs.