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The bill was backed by 297 MPs.
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on Friday passed a presidential bill on business support for the period of quarantine restrictions through the payment of one-time financial assistance to employees and individual entrepreneurs.
The bill "On social support of insured persons and business entities for the period of implementation of restrictive anti-epidemic measures introduced to prevent the spread of acute respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Ukraine" (No. 4429) was backed by 297 MPs with the required minimum of 226 votes, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
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Prime minister's comment
Presenting the bill, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said these are necessary initiatives that people will need if anti-epidemic restrictions tighten.
"We don't rule out a scenario where the epidemiological situation worsens and it's necessary to respond quickly and predictably... Now we can assume there will be no strict quarantine before New Year. We expect to live through December with the existing quarantine curbs," Shmyhal said, adding that the introduction of a full lockdown is possible in early January.
How compensation will be paid
During her speech, Head of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans' Rights Halyna Tretiakova said that payments under the law would be cashless, made through the Diia app.
"This is a rather ambitious project because we thought we should pay everything within a few weeks. Therefore, technical changes were made to provide this mechanism with really rapid payments to citizens," she said.
According to the memo to the bill, one-time financial assistance worth UAH 8,000 (US$283) is laid down to insured persons, namely to employees and individual entrepreneurs who may lose part of their salaries or income if their activities are halted over the introduction of anti-epidemic curbs. It also provides for one-time financial assistance to business entities to preserve jobs, and one-time compensation to business entities for the costs incurred over the payment of a single social contribution for their employees.
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In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted that the government had to do its utmost to prevent weekend quarantine from becoming critical for small- and medium-sized businesses.
On November 26, Zelensky submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on social support for insured persons and business entities during the period of restrictive anti-epidemic measures introduced to prevent the COVID-19 spread across country.