Micro and small businesses will have another week to apply for the interest-free loan facility from the Small Business Corporation (SBCorp) to pay for the 13th month of their workers, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
This after the SBCorp opted to extend yet again the deadline for the said loan facility from December 14, 2021 to December 21, 2021 due to the small number of applicants.
The initial deadline for applications was on December 7, 2021 before it was reset to a later date.
At a virtual news briefing on Monday, DOLE spokesman Rolly Francia disclosed that of the P500-million budget allocated by SBCorp for the program, only P29.6 million were released to 135 qualified loan applicants.
Currently, he said, another 653 enterprises have pending applications with SBCorp.
The program is expected to benefit between 6,000 and 7,000 establishments.
“So we are calling on other micro and small enterprises to avail of this facility of the Small Business Corporation of DTI [Department of Trade and Industry],” Francia said.
SBCorp in partnership with DOLE launched the program last month to help micro and small firms affected by business disruption caused by the pandemic and are struggling to pay the mandated 13th-month pay for their workers.
To qualify from the program, the applicant must be included in DOLE’s list of 8,000 vetted small and micro firms, which implemented flexible work arrangements from March 2020 until October 15, 2021.
Each applicant could loan between P12,000 to over P50,000, which will be payable in 12 months.
