The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has approved the wage subsidy applications of more than one million workers who lost their jobs when their companies were temporarily closed due to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The number of beneficiaries would more than double if the deadline for availment of the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) is extended for at least one week.
The cash assistance program expired the other day.
But many BIR officials are hopeful that it would be extended by the Department of Finance (DoF) so that more employers could enroll their penniless employees.
Records showed that over 75,000 business owners have already applied for SBWS which was intended to cover the estimated 3.5 million workers nationwide.
The eligibility is limited only to employees who did not receive salaries when the (ECQ) was implemented in March.
The joint memorandum of agreement among the DoF, BIR and Social Security System disqualifies certain group of workers from program.
They included those who work from home or part of the skeletal force.
Likewise, employees on leave for the entire duration of the ECQ whether with or without pay.
Employees with unsettled account or in-process SSS final claims are also excluded.
BIR circularized the other day the memorandum through Revenue Memorandum Circular No.45-2020 to guide regional and district officials on how to implement the SBWS.
The agreement stipulated that the SSS will release the cash aid to individual employees after the BIR issues the tax clearance to their tax-compliant employers. (Jun Ramirez)