Tile makers complain: Government aid does not arrive

Two months after the decree for sectors with intensive use of gas in their processes.

The companies in the ceramic sector, concentrated in the province of Castellón, complain that, two months after government aid was approved and requested for sectors that require intensive use of gas -as is the case- they have not received this support economic.

In a statement from the employers, Ascer, specifies that Royal Decree-Law 6/2022, of March 29, indicated that urgent measures were adopted within the framework of the National Plan to respond to the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine, and that At this point, the vast majority of companies in the ceramic sector still have not received any payment.

Ascer explains that the rule established direct aid of up to 400,000 euros for gas-intensive sectors, among which is the ceramic tile manufacturing sector (CNAE 233). Virtually all companies in the sector applied for aid within the deadline, without having received any response from the administration.

It should be noted, continues the employer, that the text of RD 6/2022 itself indicated that in the event of no response after one month of the deadline for its presentation, the automatically rejected aid was understood. He assures that "after various negotiations between Ascer and the Ministry of Industry, last week an informative note was published on the official website of the Ministry on the support measures for the intensive gas industry to clarify that the deadline for the payment of aid ends today Friday June 3th ".

"There is some nervousness in the sector, we see how the months go by without really implementing support measures for the affected economic sectors. The evolution of gas prices continues at very high levels and the outlook is not for improvement," he points out. Alberto Echavarría, general secretary of Ascer. "Despite the fact that the Ministry has conveyed to us the intention of resolving all the files these days, it is unfortunate that some urgent aid for the industry continues to not arrive more than two months after being approved," Echavarría points out.

On the other hand, Ascer recalls that the aid left out the independent atomizers, just the most intensive ceramic companies in gas consumption, generating a distortion within the sector since the atomizers integrated in ceramic companies could access the aid.

Nor was the enamel industry included in the aid. In this sense, they point out that from Ascer this problem was transferred to the Ministry of Industry and the government of the Generalitat Valenciana, the latter announced that they would study complementing the aid through the ReActiva plan, which also seems to take time to arrive.