TRAVEL AGENCIES: SAFEGUARD MEASURES PRESENTED IN BRAZIL 345 businesses, self-employed, small entrepreneurs and small individual entrepreneurs were destroyed. Thus, the Brazilian Federal Government, through Federal Law No. 13.982/20208 and Provisional Measure No. 937/20209, created the “Emergency Social Protection Aid to people in vulnerable situations, due to the COVID-19 pandemic”. Such assistance enables the possibility of receiving 600.00 R$ for three months for the people in those situations. The Brazilian Government has reserved a fund of 98 billion R$ for the payment of the aforementioned emergency aid. As this aid would not reach normal companies, even small ones, the sector demanded much more Government action in this sense, as there were no more sales, tourism was at a standstill. Accordingly, the Brazilian Government published Provisional Measure No. 944/202010, which created the so-called “Emergency Employment Support Program”, thus becoming possible for all companies, including tourism companies, to borrow money to be used to pay their employees’ wages. With the Federal Government reserveding 40 billion R$ for such loans, some characteristics and requirements were created, among which: a) the company needed to present annual gross revenue, in 2019, above 360,000.00 R$ up to 10 million R$; b) the loan would include the salary payment of all the employees of the company, however limited to the value of approximately 2,200.00 R$ for employee; c) interest on the loan is a maximum of 3.75% per year; d) the grace period to start the payment of six months; and e) 36 months to pay the loan. This rule was mandatorily directed towards the payment of wages by companies and has not yet comprehended a substantial volume of small entrepreneurs. At the moment, the Ministry of Tourism of Brazil has recently made another credit line available, this one directed to all tourism service providers, through Provisional Measure No. 963/202011. This measure was directly promoted by the 8 Source: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2020/lei/L13982.htm 9 Source: http://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/medida-provisoria-n-937-de-2-de-abril-de-2020250915948 10 Source: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2019-2022/2020/Mpv/mpv944.htm 11Source: https://www.congressonacional.leg.br/materias/medidas-provisorias/-/mpv/141866.
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