The Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) sent to Parliament a bill to extend the exemption from employer contributions to social security for travel agencies and tourist transport companies.
The project, with a single article, empowers the Executive power a exonerate from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 employer retirement social security contributions at travel agencies and companies dedicated to land transport for tourist groups and excursions. This State support had been applied in the two years prior (2020-2021) of the pandemic for these sectors.
In the explanatory memorandum, the intention is expressed to “contemplate the situation” of these companies “in the face of the problems that Uruguay has faced as a result of the pandemic” of covid-19.
“It is necessary to observe different special situations and take measures in order to mitigate the effects that it has caused in certain sectors of activity that are especially affected”, explains the project.
Along these lines, it specifies that travel agencies and transport companies “They have suffered a total or almost total paralysis given the existing health protocols, due to extraordinary measures for tourists to enter the country, and who also had to incur extraordinary expenses due to prevention measures.”.
The explanatory memorandum also clarifies that despite the fact that decree No. 93/020 of health emergency was lifted, the effects that the pandemic caused to these sectors of activity “they will continue, although to a lesser extent, but it will continue to affect them since they will resume their pre-pandemic activity levels not immediately”.
The Executive Power indicated that they consider “enough” the period of one year exemption from contributions so that the affected sectors “normalize their activity”.
