Pedro Sánchez announced the first package of measures to mitigate the damage caused by DANA, which will have a total cost of 10.6 billion euros. The plan, which was approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, includes direct aid, guarantees and tax measures from which households, businesses and municipalities can benefit.
During an appearance at the Palace of Moncloa, the President of the Government detailed the first measures of a plan which will be composed of three phases. The first is that of Immediate response, which includes declaring a severely affected area. Then they will come the reconstruction phase and the recovery and transformation phase.
Sánchez announced for the moment, a total of 78 municipalities (75 from the Valencian Community, 2 from Castile-La Mancha and 1 from Andalusia) will be able to benefit from the measures included in this planbut does not rule out expanding this list if necessary.
Regarding concrete measures, one of those adopted by the Executive in the Council of Ministers this Tuesday is quadruple the public aid provided by law in the event of death, disability, damage to property and housingthis time without income thresholds.
Concretely, it will transfer up to 72,000 euros for cases of disability and between 20,000 and 60,000 euros to repair damaged houses. Likewise, up to 10,300 euros will be allocated to changing or repairing furniture, appliances and fixtures and up to 37,000 euros to repairing elements of neighborhood communities, such as doors or doors. elevators.
On the other hand, they will benefit direct aid amounting to 838 million for SMEs and the self-employed in the most affected areas. This aid will be 5,000 euros for the self-employed and will vary between 10,000 and 150,000 euros for businesses, depending on their volume of activity.
To receive them, the President of the Government indicated that it will be enough to indicate the bank account number and that they will begin to be collected in less than a month. It is estimated that this measure It will benefit around 65,000 self-employed workers and around 30,000 businesses.
Disability and ERTE
On the other hand, Sánchez announced that, as provided for in the labor reform, companies that temporarily suspend the activity of their workers through a measure ERTE will be exempt from paying 100% of employee social security contributionsat least until February 2025.
Furthermore, extraordinary temporary disability is created for workers and self-employed people with physical or psychological damage caused by DANA. When it is considered a work accident, 75% of your salary is guaranteed from the first day of disability. A 15% increase for three months was also approved for people receiving the minimum subsistence income or non-contributory pensions.
VIDEO | The keys to the Government’s first aid plan: subsidies, tax measures and guarantees
For self-employed workers who must stop or suspend their work, it is established compensation for cessation of activity which corresponds to 70% of the contribution base. They will be able to access the aid even if they do not have the required minimum contribution period of twelve months and without their benefits being reduced in the future.
On the other hand, Sánchez pointed out that the Insurance Compensation Consortiumwhich depends on the Ministry of the Economy, will begin tomorrow to pay the first compensation to families and businesses who have lost their vehicles.
In addition, is created from a line of DANA guarantees worth 5,000 million euros for businesses, the self-employed and, for the first time, also homes. The Council of Ministers approved the first tranche, of one billion euros, on Tuesday and will continue to authorize new amounts if necessary.
Thanks to the agreement that the Spanish Government has reached with banks, citizens and SMEs with a mortgage or consumer loan They can defer full payment of their credits for 3 monthsand pay interest only for another 9 months.
Tax measures
The government also approved several tax measures, such as the IBI exemption corresponding to 2024 or the reduction of the tax on economic activities of the same exercise. Additionally, traffic or police fees will not be paid when processing the deregistration of damaged vehicles or when renewing the driving license and DNI.
For their part, aid for bodily injury is exempt from personal income tax, while The second payment of the tax return is postponed until 2025 for those affected by DANA, benefiting 200,000 taxpayers. In order to support agricultural activity in the area concerned, a reduction in personal income tax and VAT will be made for agricultural operations dedicated to this activity.
On the other hand, the Executive will assume all emergency expenses incurred by affected municipalities and 50% of those coming from all works that will be carried out in the coming months and years to repair infrastructure, facilities and services such as roads, sports centers or civic centers.
In addition, Municipalities will be compensated for municipal taxes that they no longer collect. and your spending possibilities will expand through financially sustainable investments.
To finance all these expenses, The government has already asked the European Commission for help from the European Solidarity Fund.
The Executive will urgently submit the request for approval to the Council and the European Parliament of a new regulation called RESTOREwhich will make it possible to reprogram the FEDER and ESF+ cohesion funds to devote part of their resources to mitigating the damage caused by natural disasters.
Staff reinforcement
However, they will be implemented strengthening measures within the courts and the teams of notaries and civil registrars will be strengthened. Additionally, an emergency registration portal will be launched that will allow citizens to certify the location of their real estate via satellite.
In this sense, also Reinforcement offices will be established in the municipalities concerned supporting local elected officials in serving citizens and streamlining administrative procedures.
Furthermore, An interministerial commission will be created to coordinate reconstruction and recovery tasks of the Plan for the Valencian Community. This effort will include mechanisms to intensify bilateral cooperation with regional governments, in particular with the Generalitat Valenciana.
