Mateusz Morawiecki said the PLN 1.83 billion (EUR 400 million, USD 470 million) support package would benefit some 200,000 businesses across the nation and around 372,000 employees in sectors including food service, entertainment, health and fitness, and retail.
“We are at a decisive moment in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic,” Morawiecki said at a televised news conference on Tuesday.
“We have introduced a number of restrictions that took effect last weekend,” he added, warning that there was “a thin line between an uncontrolled outbreak of the epidemic and a shutdown of the economy.”
“The virus is not giving us much room for maneuver, so we want all affected companies to be covered by our stimulus package,” Morawiecki said.
He told reporters that companies active in the food service, entertainment, health-and-fitness and retail industries would be exempt from social insurance contributions in November and compensated for downtime from public coffers in an effort to save jobs.
He also promised a range of non-refundable subsidies and said that the government would offer more support to businesses if restrictions were maintained in the months ahead.
Morawiecki has previously said that some 5 million jobs have been saved throughout the country thanks to measures including a massive relief and stimulus package that his government launched earlier this year to shield the economy from the coronavirus.
Following a surge in cases, tougher measures to battle COVID-19 were reinstated in Poland at the end of last week, affecting businesses including restaurants, bars and gyms.
The country on Tuesday reported a record rise in coronavirus infections, confirming 16,300 new cases, the most since the pandemic hit the country in early March.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, PAP
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