The final deadline for the voluntary return of the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) is set on June 30, the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday.
The DOF said in a statement the SBWS Program Task Force (SPTF) has resolved to allow the voluntary return of the subsidy until the end of the month, in response to requests from employers and employees who were still unable to return the SBWS despite previous extensions of its deadline to return subsidies.
The task force had previously announced that a return of the subsidy must be made by employers or employees, as the case may be, for employers who failed to maintain the employment status of all employee beneficiaries before the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in 2020 and throughout the SBWS, or misrepresented in their application material facts relevant to the eligibility of their employees; employees who resigned during the period of ECQ and modified ECQ imposed in Luzon and other parts of the country in 2020; and employers of the beneficiaries of the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (DOLE-CAMP) who received the full amount of the second tranche of the SBWS.
According to the SPTF, the amount of the subsidy to be returned should cover the first and second tranches of the SBWS.
However, DOLE-CAMP beneficiaries who received the full amount of the SBWS second tranche shall only return the amount equivalent to the DOLE-CAMP benefit received.
The procedure for voluntary returns is contained in SPTF Resolution No. 2, which may be found on the SBWS page of the DOF website.
The SPTF had previously extended the SBWS voluntary returns deadline, which was originally set on June 15, 2020, multiple times through several resolutions to allow employers and employees time to return the subsidy.
However, the SPTF decided to set a final deadline, more than a year after the initial deadline, because of the impending liquidation of the SBWS funds.
Through the SBWS program, the government provided two tranches of cash aid amounting to P5,000 to P8,000 each, as a subsidy to qualified employees of small businesses who were dislocated during the height of the community quarantines imposed last year to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The DOF said the government allocated P46 billion for this subsidy program that benefitted more than three million employees of small businesses.
