To the

Prime Minister Ludovic ORBAN,

Romanian Government

Governor Mugur Constantin ISĂRESCU,

National Bank of Romania

Dear Sir,

Association of Maramureș Entrepreneurs, an organization formed exclusively from commercial companies with private capital and registered office in Maramureș county (having at this time, 68 member companies with a cumulative total of about 7,000 employees), considering the spread infection with the coronavirus, which has already severely affected many sectors of the economy, also taking into account the recommendations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), considers that it is necessary to take (at least) the following measures as a matter of urgency, in order to reduce the negative effects on the economy:

• Exemption from contribution payments (CAS and CASS) for a period of 3 months.
• Subsidizing the wages up to the level of the statutory minimum wage for a period of 3 months, to avoid massive redundancies in the affected economic sectors.
• Lifting the attachment ordered by ANAF on the accounts of the SMEs in difficulty.
• Suspension of VAT payment.
• Ensuring the possibility of granting low-interest-rate emergency loans for companies in difficulty and with a grace period of 6-12 months.
• Suspension for a defined period of payment of rates on loans or other commercial financing instruments accessed by companies.

In the very probable hypothesis that the economic situation will deteriorate dramatically due to the crisis caused by the extreme epidemiological situation, we consider that relaxing fiscal policy, lending policies and granting financial incentives to companies within the affected sectors are mandatory measures for restoring business confidence and mitigating the negative effects on the economy.

In the zonal economic context in which the European Commission has proposed today, 13.03.2020, to the European Parliament and the European Council that, within a maximum of 2 weeks: 37 billion euros be allocated for the COVID-19 crisis, to allow the Member States to overcome the deficit of 3% of GDP, the state aid to be granted more easily - these allowing even the compensation of the damages directly caused by exceptional events -, to grant wage subsidies, to operate the suspension of the payments of the corporate taxes and on the added value or the social contributions, to provide direct financial support - compensations - to consumers, etc.), please have measures that do not allow the widening of the economic gaps between our country and the more developed states, at least through a rapid and correct reaction to access these sums allocated especially at European level, as well as to the granting of State aid.

Board of Directors of AIM

We invite you to support this initiative by signing the online petition available here: https://www.petitieonline.com/aim_sustine_companiile.