The bill for the government's support package for companies during the corona crisis is estimated to land at 188 billion for taxpayers. The largest part is expected to go to support for short-term work, which is estimated at 95 billion.

At the same time, no one but the state gets insight into which companies are allowed to take part of this money, something that has been criticized.

- It is an important question whether it is a reasonable secrecy legislation given the size of these subsidies and is something to discuss for the future. Now it was very urgent to get this in place, then we took the legislation that already existed, says Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson (S).

Different degree of transparency

The government has thus based itself on the previous law on support for short-term work from 2013, where there is tough secrecy to protect companies from information that could harm them coming out. At the same time, other parts of the government's support package are covered by lighter secrecy, which means that the information is public.

In other words, taxpayers gain insight into how their money is spent on some aid but not on others.

But now the government is opening up for a change in the law for similar business support in the future.

- If this support is extended or if similar support is needed in the future, this is one of the questions you need to look at and I can understand if I think it seems strange that, for example, journalists should not be able to review companies that have received this support, says Magdalena Andersson.