The Polish Development Fund (PFR) continues its efforts to recover funds granted to small and medium-sized enterprises under the so-called “Anti-Covid Shield”. So far, over 5.6 thousand companies have received such requests. Soon, requests for the return of funds will be sent to other entities.
PFR is sending out payment demands to entrepreneurs on a massive scale, followed by lawsuits for the return of all subsidies granted. This is happening despite PFR’s earlier decisions to cancel them.
The Polish Development Fund bases its debt collection activities on the Regulations of the “Shield” Programme. According to them, PFR has the right to verify the conditions for the correctness of payments until the entrepreneur has repaid the entire unamortized part of the subsidy.
Although repayments are most often spread over two years, PFR requests repayments in the following situations:
The PFR Shield was supposed to help protect the labour market and provide companies with financial liquidity. Currently, however, many companies are receiving requests from PFR to return all or part of the subsidies granted. Such a request has already been sent to 5.6 thousand entities. Some of them have returned the funds, but many cases have gone to court.
The legal basis for PFR’s claim for reimbursement remains often questionable:
The subject of subsidy returns from the Shield raises great interest and legal doubts. There is a clear element of legal uncertainty for entrepreneurs who, despite a number of PFR activities approving the payment, are suddenly called upon to return the subsidy.
PFR’s actions may, under certain conditions, given the specific nature of the matter of assistance in the COVID-19 pandemic, be considered an abuse of subjective rights.
The anti-covid shield included a package of aid programmes launched by the Polish Development Fund (PFR) in response to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim was to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic, in particular:
The programme included two main pillars:
As part of the aid, PFR paid out over PLN 74 billion to entrepreneurs, which benefited 355 thousand entities.
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