Georgian businessmen ask PM to extend benefits for businesses
The Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia met with business sector representatives earlier today to discuss the business sector in Georgia amid the coronavirus. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Georgian businessmen have asked Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia to extend benefits businesses enjoyed in the spring amid the coronavirus.
President of the Georgian Business Association Soso Pkhakadze has urged the Georgian government to help the hotel industry and asked Gakharia to cancel the income tax hotels had postponed for four months since April.
Moreover, businesses who paid salaries lower than 1,500 GEL per worker paid only a portion of the income tax, while businesses who paid monthly salaries of 750 GEL were fully exempt from personal income tax for six months.
He noted that the benefit ends on November 1 and asked the government to extend the benefit for an additional six months.
- Gov’t presents coronavirus anti-crisis plan for Georgian business: What support can businesses expect?
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The Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia met with business sector representatives earlier today to discuss the business sector in Georgia amid the coronavirus.
Enterprise Georgia is starting a new programme today to cofinance family-owned, small and medium-size hotels in Georgia. The programme will seek to alleviate financial problems in the tourism industry due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Small and medium-size business owners (SMEs) who have leased municipality-owned areas for their business activities have been made exempt from lease payments for three months to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on the business, Mayor of Tbilisi, Kakha Kaladze stated today.
What support can business expect?
The government of Georgia has presented an anti-crisis plan for Georgian businesses in order to ease the burden caused by the coronavirus crisis. The government responded to the demand of the hotels, restaurants, tourist agencies and tour operators in Georgia and decided to postpone payment of property and income tax by four months.
The impact of the coronavirus is rippling through the Georgian economy, but it might take a few months to fully see the fallout in data that track economic performance in Georgia.
Member businesses of the Business Association of Georgia (BAG) have assessed the present business situation negatively in the third quarter of 2020, while their expectations for the next six months are positive, says the BAG Index, which is a joint product of the BAG, PMC Research Center and the ifo Institute for Economic Research.
About 41 per cent of Georgian companies have a low level of trust in the Georgian judicial system, while nine per cent have none at all, shows the Business Association of Georgian (BAG) Index, which is a joint product of BAG, PMCG Research Center and the ifo Institute for Economic Research.
The Georgian Business Association has asked the government of Georgia and the newly elected parliament to make changes to the Tax Code as soon as possible in order to extend the tax breaks imposed on businesses in the spring amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Fifteen business associations in Georgia have sent an open letter to the government of Georgia today in which they demand coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted step by step.