A meeting has been held on March 18, 2020 to discuss measures to be taken in order to provide financial stability and to reduce the effects of COVID-19 pandemic. Below is a brief summary of such presented measures, among others, which may directly concern businesses:

• The April, May and June payments in relation to social security premiums and witholding and VAT tax deductions are promised to be postponed for 6 months for retail, mall, iron-steel, automotive, logistics-transportation, cinema-theater, accommodation, food-beverage, textile-garment and event-organization sectors,

• The payments of principal and proceeds owed to banks by companies whose cash flows are negatively affected due to measures taken against COVID-19 outbreak are announced to be postponed for a minimum of 3 months and financial support promised to be provided, if necessary.

• Stock financing support is promised to be provided to exporters to maintain capacity utilization ratios during the interim slowdown process.

• The Credit Guarantee Fund limit is announced to be increased from 25 billion liras to 50 billion liras, and that companies and SMEs whose businesses are negatively affected and who are with liquidity need are promised to have priority in receiving loans.

• Credit records of companies which fail to meet financial obligations in the months of April, May and June due to measures taken against COVID-19 spread shall be annotated as “force majeure”.

• The tax declarations in relation to payments of source deductions such as withholding are promised to be postponed for 3 months.

• The flexible and remote working models in legislation are planned to be made more effective.

• The Short-Time Working Allowance is announced to be activated, and the processes required to benefit from such to be facilitated and accelerated.

• In order to ensure continuity in employment, 2-month compensatory working period is announced to be increased to 4 months.