During a television interview, the president of BANDESAL, Juan Pablo Durán, said that he will deliver to the New Legislative Assembly a reform to the Fideicomiso para la Recuperación Económica de las Empresas Salvadoreñas, which will provide a subsidy to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) before the minimum wage increase of 20% for 12 months, which comes into effect on august 1.

"Next week a reform to the Fideicomiso para la Recuperación Económica de las Empresas Salvadoreñas will be submitted to the New Legislative Assembly, which will create a subsidy to support MSMEs with the minimum wage for 12 months", said the head of BANDESAL.

The head of BANDESAl, also explained that the implementation of this subsidy seeks to benefit companies, but stressed that it will be to those who reflect the increase in the minimum wage.

"With the implementation of this subsidy we will benefit companies with a maximum of 100 employees, giving the subsidy to those who reflect the increase in the minimum wage in their payrolls", he emphasized.

He also explained that companies have five working days to send the payrolls to the Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social (ISSS).

"At the end of August, companies have five working days to send the payrolls to the ISSS and, subsequently, we will be able to validate in the system. This will allow us to deliver the subsidy in mid-September", he added.

The first reform was carried out in may, which modified the destinations of the non-refundable funds, which were assigned to artisans, artists, transporters, fishermen and merchants affected by the fire at the Santa Ana market.

The head of BANDESAL said that the subsidy for the economic recovery of the companies has benefited 4,318 formal companies, through credits and 13,000 through subsidies. He also informed that around 8,773 artists affected by the pandemic were subsidized.

"We have placed US$157 million in credits and US$162 million in subsidies. That is more than US$218 million that the formal sector has received to date", he said.