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Berlin (dpa) - In view of massive criticism, Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) apologized to companies for the slow payment of Corona aid.
Altmaier said on Sunday evening on the political talk show “The right questions” on “Bild live”: “First of all, I apologize for the fact that it is taking so long.
If I had seen any way to speed it up, I would have done it. "
Since the federal states were not in a position to administer the November and December aid, a platform for it had to be "pounded out of the ground".
Until a few days ago, the Federal Ministry of Finance had argued about the conditions for the bridging aid from January.
But you cannot start paying out beforehand.
"That is something where we are too cumbersome, where we have to get faster," said Altmaier.
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The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Economic Affairs Andreas Pinkwart (FDP) rejected Altmaier's criticism of the states.
He told the German Press Agency on Monday: “We waited two and a half months for the federal government's software for November aid and then processed, approved and paid out 70 percent of the full applications within two and a half weeks.
We were even quicker with the emergency aid, where we were allowed to develop the software ourselves. "
The federal government has long been heavily criticized because of the slow implementation of Corona aid and too much bureaucracy.
As the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Monday, more than 80 billion euros in aid for the economy have been approved since the beginning of the Corona crisis.
In addition, there is the short-time work allowance of around 23 billion euros.
In the November and December aid, around 5.2 billion euros were paid out in funds.
These aids are aimed primarily at companies in lockdown; lost sales are reimbursed.
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Bridging aid III is the core instrument of economic aid.
Fixed operating costs such as rent or electricity are reimbursed.
The finance and economics ministries had decided to expand the aid, and the complex application system is to be simplified.
Applications for advance payments should be possible soon, as it was said.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210208-99-352749 / 2