At the end of our Government’s circuit breaker, the Government announced a $143 million business support package to help businesses who were impacted as a result of the five-day lockdown, including businesses who missed out on Valentine’s Day.
The Victorian Government’s $143 million Circuit Breaker Support Package is expected to help more than 50,000 Victorian businesses who incurred costs such as the loss of perishable goods, cancelled gigs and foregone trading.
The package contains four initiatives targeted at businesses, including small and micro businesses. These include:
- The $92 million Business Costs Assistance Program will offer grants of $2,000 for eligible employing and non-employing businesses in the hospitality, food wholesaling, tourism, events and selected retail industries. Businesses with an annual payroll of up to $3 million will be eligible.
- A $24.9 million injection to the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund will give previous recipients of this grant an automatic one-off $3,000 per premises payment. More than $165 million has already been paid to about 7,500 businesses through this fund. Recipients of this payment will not be eligible to apply for the Business Cost Assistance Program.
- The $16.2 million Victorian Accommodation Support Program recognises the impact of cancellations on regional and metropolitan accommodation providers. Accommodation providers who had 10 or fewer cancellations can apply for $2,250 per business while providers with more than 10 booking cancellations can apply for $4,500 per business.
- $10 million Regional and Melbourne Travel Voucher Scheme: Building on the success of the Regional Travel Voucher Scheme, a further $10 million will expand the scheme to include a new Melbourne Travel Voucher Scheme, offering 40,000 vouchers for $200 for travel in greater Melbourne, and an additional 10,000 vouchers to support travel in regional Victoria.
More information about the Circuit Breaker Support Package is available at business.vic.gov.au.