Information update on measures for cultural and creative sectors affected by COVID-19 outbreak

Lithuania applies multiple measures – specific and general – to support cultural and creative sectors affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

Specific measures to support the sector:

Ministry of Culture, Lithuanian Council for Culture and Lithuanian Film Centre under the Ministry of Culture are the institutions implementing those specific measures. 

General measures, applicable to all sectors continue to be applied. 

The State Tax Inspectorate has announced a list of companies most affected by COVID-19. Affected companies that have accumulated taxes before the end of the emergency and for two months after that are automatically, without request, exempted from default interest and no tax recovery actions will be initiated until 31 December, 2020.

Self-employed residents whose economic activity is included in the list of economic activities most affected by COVID-19 (for example, photography, cinemas, museums, libraries, arts, creative activities, art objects’ restoration etc.) and who accumulated taxes from March 16 until the end of the emergency and two months after that are automatically, without request, exempted from default interest and no tax recovery actions will be initiated until 31 December, 2020.

Businesses can also receive: compensation of up to 100 % of loan interest with annual interest rate up to 7 %, state-funded soft loans for SMEs, guarantees for financial services provided by financial institutions and partial compensation of lease payments for businesses most affected by COVID-19 (budget: 100 EUR mln). 

During emergency or quarantine period subsidies for employers to maintain jobs continue to be paid: 90% of the employee’s accrued salary but not more than EUR 607 gross or 70% of the employee’s accrued salary but not more than EUR 910.5 gross. 

After the quarantine employers may receive subsidies to maintain jobs after the end of downtime or affected by the pandemic (employers included in to the list of affected companies). If companies are affected by the pandemic but did not apply downtime, they are entitled for subsidies up to 10 employees (companies with up to 20 employees) or 50% of employees (companies with more than 20 employees). Amount of subsidies is paid up to six months and maximum up to 607 EUR with a gradual reduce every two months. Employers working with advanced technologies, knowledge-based services or in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal or social dialogue may receive subsidies maximum up to 1214 EUR per month per employee.

Jobseekers may apply for a monthly allowance of EUR 200 up to six months but not later than 31/12/2020.

During quarantine self-employed persons who have no employment relationship and do not receive any work-related income can apply for a flat-rate allowance of EUR 257 per month. 

General measures are implemented by the State Tax Inspectorate, INVEGA and Employment Agency.

Lithuania also continues to implement a scheme for compensating the tickets for the events that could not take place due to covid-19. This support measure is implemented through the Law on the effects of the quarantine in relation to COVID-19 (Coronavirus infection) on the implementation of the contracts for the provision of events organization services, adopted by the Parliament on 30/4/20, No. XIII-2876. 

Main provisions of the Law:

Where the event does not take place due to prohibitions imposed during quarantine (during the period of prohibitions established during quarantine and within a period of 3 months from the lifting of the quarantine prohibitions which have made it impossible or significantly more difficult to organize the event), the service provider shall have the right to set a later date for the event within 30 days of the lifting of that prohibition.

The event must take place within a reasonable time from the original date of the event, but no later than 12 months after the lifting of the quarantine prohibitions that have made it impossible or significantly more difficult to organize the event. In this case, the service provider is not entitled to charge the consumer with any additional fees.

The consumer shall have the right to notify the service provider no later than 60 days after the service provider announces the later date of the event that he/she does not agree with the later date set by the service provider. In this case the service provider shall reimburse the consumer no later than within 30 days from the date of the receipt of the consumer notification by providing the consumer with a coupon of at least the amount paid for the ticket without any additional charges. With the coupon, the consumer can pay for the ticket price or part of the ticket price for future events organized by the same service provider.

If the consumer does not pay the ticket price or part of the ticket price for future events organized by the same service provider with the coupon within 12 months from the date of issue of the coupon, he/she shall request the service provider no later than within 14 days after the expiry of this period for the return of money equal to the value of the coupon.

Where the provider does not set a later date for the event, the consumer shall have the right to demand that the service provider reimburses the consumer for the ticket price no later than 14 days after the end of the period of exercise of the service provider's right.

The legal act can be accessed here.