A total of 3,525 companies in Austria have so far voluntarily reimbursed incorrectly received corona aid. In total, this concerns about 46.5 million euros.
The “Standard” quoted these numbers on Tuesday, citing information from the Federal Covid-19 Financing Agency (COFAG). Aid received illegally can be severely punished if not corrected in time. The option to correct a corona aid request is available on the COFAG website.
Over 100,000 applications rejected
By early February, COFAG had disbursed more than 1.3 million grant applications for a total amount of approximately EUR 14.6 billion to 235,000 domestic companies, according to its own statements. After a “further investigation”, a total of 103,510 applications were rejected in the years 2020 to 2022 for a total amount of 656 million euros. In addition, amount corrections would have resulted in further savings of around 287 million euros. At the end of last year, this was the case for 20,401 applications.
Court: “Significant over-financing potential”
Over-financing of companies through corona support has often been criticized in the past, the Court of Auditors spoke of a “significant potential for over-financing” in its report on COFAG. In total, a total of 47 billion euros in corona aid from the government has been distributed since the start of the pandemic.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
