Below is a report from the Brindisi Chamber of Commerce regarding the social and economic situation in Brindisi and the entire Apuglia region:

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"The economic effect of coronavirus is beginning to appear with increasing force in data on manufacturing activities. While we are waiting for initiatives to support the financial liquidity of enterprises, we note an unprecedented number of cases of closing companies - only in our region, in the first three months of 2020, almost 30,000 companies disappeared.

The ratio of the number of companies emerging and collapsing in the first quarter of this year is primarily affected by restrictions resulting from the emergency situation of Covid 19. This is the worst result in the last 7 years.

Freezing companies must not affect employees.

The blocking, albeit temporarily, of the crisis-related production activities in Covid 19 resulted in 3.7 million employees losing their only source of family income .

Employees of small and very small companies with an average monthly income of just € 1,250 pay the highest price. There are basically three overlapping problems in the production chain:

• the first problem, which we can define as survival , is decisively related to financial resources, debt management and the financial stability of the enterprise;

• it is absolutely necessary to resume production activities and construction sites that have been closed for too long and could not operate because of bureaucratic blockades that are no longer sustainable;

• the third problem is related to the seasonality of the business of tourism industry enterprises - stopping operations for one and a half months in these conditions means the loss of, at best, a year of operation or, worse and more likely, will mean the loss of income and employment of the entire sector for the coming years.

All this raises great concerns, especially when it comes to real possibilities related to the need to solve these problems.

 

At present, to avoid the collapse of the entire system, it is considered necessary:

• immediate start of production activities by the production sector;

• granting aid "bonuses" in every case of problems with the functioning of companies.

 

We also fully share the appeals of associations representing the artisan sphere regarding the huge problem related to the wave of unregistered activities in the hairdressing, aesthetic, car repair, building repairs and many others sectors.

In the current situation, it is unacceptable that at the same time, when hundreds of companies close to limit human contacts, "black" activities are flourishing in homes or garages used as workplaces, disturbingly destroying "isolation" as the most important deterrent coronavirus infection and companies' efforts to maintain jobs.

 

In addition to the economic damage caused to ordinary companies, which sacrifice themselves, closing themselves for more than two months, there are moral losses and frustration.

In such a situation, all political and economic activities undertaken by the government should aim at maintaining the supply chain.

Below we summarize some of the proposals developed by the task force of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce in Brindisi:

 

• Simplification of bureaucracy and unlocking of orders
  Given the fact that public offices are still working, we are asking the city authorities and competent authorities to implement as soon as possible the simplification of permitting procedures and decisions (e.g. issuing building permits) through the use of self-certification and declarations.
  
  We ask municipal authorities and other bodies to immediately start tender procedures for works and services that are currently suspended or are being considered, in order to create employment opportunities, especially for local companies.
  Construction: in the period in which we discover the importance of apartments and their additions in the form of gardens and terraces, where there is also a need to adapt them to the conditions of infection control, authorization procedures must be bureaucratic and simplified to encourage immediate private and public investment in the sector building.

 

• Infrastructure
  Facilitating the resumption of small and large works that can already be continued and large infrastructure works.

 

• Payments of public entities
  We encourage public authorities to speed up overdue payments
  and expiring delivery invoices for local businesses to provide the liquidity necessary to maintain the productive structure of enterprises.

 

• Central PPE purchases
  Creating a shopping center to buy and provide local companies with masks and other personal / anti-infective protection measures, given that these measures are currently difficult to access (especially at reasonable prices, which only applies to large orders).

 

• Large local companies
  We urge large companies to be ready to speed up invoice payments for local smaller companies to ensure liquidity and maintain production structure in supply chains

 

• Investments in industrial chains
  We call for the involvement of large companies in accelerating projects and investments in progress or under development, while helping them to deviate from any procedures that slow down the launch or continuation of these ventures in order to create employment opportunities for local companies.

 

• ZES areas We call on the authorities responsible for ZES (special economic zones) to accelerate their launch in epidemic areas
   

• Permanent Technical Council of the province
  Establishment of a permanent regional technical council (consisting of first-line experts) which will deal with the development of applications and procedures for dealing with emergencies and will accompany local companies in their reactivation process, preparing with commitment the industrial plan for the territory of Brindisi, ASI consortium, board Portu, Chamber of Commerce.

1. Suspension of collection of local taxes on enterprises, and related to services and concessions, due to the mandatory closure of these (service) enterprises on which these enterprises, due to their mandatory closure, do not have resources.

In particular, provision should be made for the cancellation of tax quotas (TARI, TOSAP, TOURIST TAX, ADVERTISING TAX, etc.) Only today for superiors to June June.

Any amounts already paid by enterprises, for the accrued portion corresponding to March and April, can be converted into a tax credit, which will be used as compensation for city taxes for 2021.

Failure to adopt the proposed solutions threatens to worsen the difficult financial situation of many of the enterprises involved and the actual difficulties in settling them within set deadlines, causing a number of administrative problems (withdrawal of licenses, suspension of operations, exclusions, etc.), whose only effect would be to undermine the stability of the sector, which would have serious consequences consequences in terms of employment and user services.

2. For public enterprises as well as tourist and commercial enterprises which provide services outside public areas in the summer, and taking into account the need to guarantee the "social distance" between customers in the near future, it is necessary to temporarily reduce the municipal TOSAP tariffs or, alternatively for those who already had a concession, extension of the area granted free of charge.

The lack of acceptance of the proposed solution and the need to ensure a greater distance between e.g. tables in cafes and restaurants would have the following direct consequences:

 

• In the case of the same number of areas required under concessions, a decrease in the number of places, and thus a decrease in the level of employment, as well as a significant increase in sales prices, caused by a decrease in the volume of trade at the same concession costs;

• In the event of an increase in the area required under concessions, a significant increase in sales prices, determined by the increase in the costs of concessions, with the same turnover;

In both cases, an increase in sales prices would risk shrinking demand and, consequently, weakening the sector, which could affect employment levels;

3. In order to facilitate the work of municipal offices and speed up the issue of permits, especially in the tourist accommodation sector, the Chamber of Commerce could provide companies with information and assistance to companies to prepare and send applications, leaving the municipal offices only formal verification these applications.

Failure to adopt the proposed measure, in the light of shortening the time of accepting applications submitted annually by tourist accommodation facilities, including seasonal ones, would lead to an increase in the activity of municipal offices and to the extension of the time of issuing permits and start-up activities, which, as a consequence, will negatively affect the turnover of companies and tourist services users and ultimately at employment level. "