TEHRAN – The National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control has announced the details of its new regulations approved to support people and businesses negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

In its latest meeting held on Saturday, the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control approved several new financial and regulatory packages for supporting the businesses and groups of people that have been severely affected by the restrictions imposed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

According to Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohammad Nahavandian, the mentioned packages include tax relief provisions, postponing the settlement of bank loans, postponing the payment of employers’ insurance share, the extension of payment of bank dues and etc.

According to the new regulations on debt settlement relief, natural persons with up to five billion rials (nearly $120,000) of dues to the banks and legal entities with up to 20 billion rials (about $475,000) of debt that were due to settle their loans by the end of the previous year (March 19) will be able to extend their deadline and pay their debts by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

Also for those businesses in red zones that have been severely affected by the pandemic, in addition to facilities and bank loans that are paid to such businesses, the employers can also postpone the payment of their share of social security insurance by two months.

Also, all the facilities and bank loans paid to households or businesses during this period are exempted from the new laws on debt settlement and creditors cannot claim such assets in return for their debts.

Earlier in November, Nahavandian had said the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control approved 14 financial plans to support households and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the official, the support packages for households would be provided for those without fixed-income who live in red-zones.

Nahavandian noted that nearly 30 million people were expected to benefit from the mentioned support plan.

Regarding the businesses, the official noted that for all businesses, it was decided to halt the direct tax collection until January 2021, and also for issuing or renewing business licenses, natural persons or economic units would not need to obtain a tax payment certificate.

EF/MA