Serbia: Financial support program

published on 22 April 2020 | reading time approx. 3 minutes

​The Government of the Republic of Serbia, at the proposal of the Ministry of Economy, adopted the Program of financial support to economic entities for maintaining liquidity and working capital in difficult economic conditions caused by the COVID - 19 pandemic.
 

   
 
The main objectives of the Program are to provide support to business entities in the difficult business environment caused by the COVID - 19 pandemic to acquire working capital and to maintain current liquidity in order to regularly meet obligations to business partners, employees and the state.
 
The implementation of the Program will be made through the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia until the funds from the Program are spent, and no later than December 10, 2020. For the implementation of the Program has been set aside RSD 24,000,000,000.
 

Who qualifies for the Program

Entrepreneurs, co-operatives, micro, small and medium-sized companies, which are mostly privately owned or cooperatively owned, and which carry out production, service, trade and agricultural activity, have the right to use the funds.
 
Funds under this Program may not be used for:

• organizing games of chance, lotteries and similar activities;
• sales of oil and petroleum products;
• the production and marketing of any product or activity deemed prohibited under domestic regulations or international conventions and agreements.

 
The loan may also be granted if in the official financial statements of a business entity for one of the last two years, a net loss is reported but an operating profit has been recorded.

Loan Terms

• repayment period of up to 36 months, which includes a grace period of up to twelve months, the total loan term is up to 12 months of grace and up to 24 months of repayment;
• the interest rate is 1% annually;
• loans are approved and repaid in dinars;
• The minimum loan amount for one loan beneficiary with related parties for companies is RSD 1,000,000.00 and for entrepreneurs, cooperatives and business entities registered in the relevant register RSD 200,000.00;
• The maximum loan amount for a related party loan beneficiary may be:

✓ for entrepreneurs and micro-legal entities up to RSD 10,000,000.00,
✓ for small legal entities up to RSD 40,000,000.00 and
✓ for medium-sized legal entities up to RSD 120,000,000.00;

• repayment of the loan will be made in monthly annuities;
• during the grace period, interest is calculated and credited to the principal debt;
• the basic condition for the realization of these loans is the retention of the number of employees, in accordance with the report of the Central Register of Compulsory Social Security on the number of temporary and permanent workers on 16 March 2020, but both until the date of submission and in accepts up to 10% of the stated number of employees during the use of the loan.
• instruments for securing the proper repayment of the loan are:
• promissory note and debit authorization of the guarantor / assignor of the debt (if there is a guarantee / access to the debt of another business entity) and / or
• real estate mortgages whose market value is 1: 1 in relation to the loan amount and / or
• a pledge on equipment / movables with a market value of 1: 1 relative to the amount of credit granted and / or
• promissory note and debit authorization of the debtor's founder / shareholder;
   
  

The promissory note and the debtor's debit authorization must be provided with one of the above collateral.
 

Collaterals

Depending on the loan amount, the loan beneficiaries provide the following collateral:

• up to RSD 1,000,000.00, the collateral is the bills of exchange of the loan beneficiaries and the personal bills of the founder (all founders);
• up to the amount of RSD 2,000,000.00, the security of the loan is the bills of credit of the borrower, the personal bills of the founder (all founders) and the guarantee of the natural person who is employed on a permanent basis;
• up to RSD 10,000,000.00, the security of the loan is the bills of credit of the borrower, the personal bills of the founder (all founders) and the guarantee of the related legal entity,
• up to an amount of RSD 25,000,000.00, the collateral is the bills of exchange of the borrower, the personal bills of the founder (all founders) and the guarantee of a credit rating economic entity that is not related to the borrower;
• for the amount exceeding RSD 25,000,000.00, the security is the bills of credit of the borrower, the pledge on the equipment owned by the borrower or the pledgee and / or the first order mortgage. For clients in the Fund's portfolio who already have established real / relevant collateral, the loans will be approved with higher order collateral.
   

After the conditions and contents of the required documentation have been published, requests will be submitted electronically to the e-mail at prijemzahteva_covid19@fondzarazvoj.rs .