Hope Recovery Fund to be received within 2-3 hours of application... "Broad and substantial support"

4th Direct Support Fund for Small Business Owners
Payment Amount Increased Up to 20 Million Won
Including Simplified Taxpayers and Tax-Exempt Businesses
Expansion of Support Targets to Include Businesses in Management Crisis Sectors

Kwon Chil-seung, Minister of SMEs and Startups, is giving a briefing on the commencement of Hope Recovery Fund payments at the Government Sejong Complex on the morning of the 17th.

Starting today (17th), a 4.2 trillion KRW Hope Recovery Fund will be distributed to small business owners and small enterprises affected by COVID-19. The government is expanding the eligibility criteria for revenue decline and including simplified taxpayers and tax-exempt businesses in the support targets, providing broad and substantial assistance.

On the 17th, Kwon Chil-seung, Minister of SMEs and Startups, held a briefing at the Government Complex Sejong and announced that applications for the first rapid payment to 1.33 million eligible recipients began at 8 a.m. that day. Minister Kwon stated, "Although the initial plan was to start payments in early September, considering the increasing difficulties on the ground, we expedited the process and advanced support by two weeks."

The Hope Recovery Fund is the fourth direct support fund for small business owners struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The first rapid payment targets are those who met the Hope Recovery Fund eligibility among the previous 'Emergency Relief Fund Plus' recipients. By business type, there are 134,000 under gathering bans, 567,000 under business restrictions, and 633,000 in business crisis. Notably, the criteria for revenue decline for business restriction and business crisis sectors have been expanded to eight categories, and support targets have been significantly broadened for business crisis sectors that were not subject to quarantine measures but suffered substantial damage.

In the Emergency Relief Fund Plus, the number of business crisis sectors was 112, which had a revenue decrease of 20% or more compared to 2019, but in the Hope Recovery Fund, an additional 165 sectors with a 10% to 20% revenue decrease were added, increasing the total to 277. The number of businesses receiving support as business crisis sectors also increased from 165,000 in the Emergency Relief Fund Plus to 720,000 (based on budget allocation), more than quadrupling.

For simplified taxpayers and tax-exempt businesses without semi-annual VAT reported sales, semi-annual sales will also be compared using tax infrastructure data. Through this, many simplified taxpayers and tax-exempt businesses who did not receive support from the Emergency Relief Fund Plus are expected to receive the Hope Recovery Fund.

To provide more substantial support than before, the maximum support amount has been raised to 20 million KRW, and support amounts are set differently depending on the duration of quarantine measures and the scale of sales. For those operating multiple businesses, support can be provided up to twice the maximum unit price for up to four businesses. Applications for support can be made through the dedicated Hope Recovery Fund system, and payments are expected to be deposited within 2 to 3 hours after application at the earliest.

Applications can be made today and tomorrow (18th) based on the odd-even system according to the last digit of the business registration number, and from the 19th, applications can be submitted regardless of odd or even numbers. As of 9 a.m. on that day, text messages were sent to 165,000 people, and 87,000 had applied. The application amount reached 249.5 billion KRW.

The second rapid payment will begin on the 30th for businesses eligible for support but not included in the first rapid payment. The second rapid payment targets include single individuals with multiple businesses, businesses opened after March this year, and simplified taxpayers added to the support targets due to expanded revenue decline criteria. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will provide separate guidance within this month regarding the businesses included in the second rapid payment and application methods.

Minister Kwon said, "We plan to continue support through the Hope Recovery Fund, National Support Fund, Loss Compensation, and a 6 trillion KRW emergency loan for small business owners," adding, "We hope this Hope Recovery Fund will be an opportunity to overcome the COVID-19 crisis."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.