The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Ordinance No. 139/2020 6 and, on 7 April, Ordinance No. 150/2020 7 , both from the Ministry of Economy. These postponed federal taxes in March and April 2020 for maturities, this time for all companies in the country. 4. Measures for Granting Credit Brazil, following the same thing that happened with the world economy at the time of COVID-19, was presented with a dire situation, a very fragile political scenario, many debates and conflicts between State Governments and the Federal Government, both in the search for decisions and solutions, between lockdown in municipalities or states or even flexibility to return activities. At the same time, thousands of jobs were no longer supported, and many informal businesses, self-employed, small entrepreneurs and small individual entrepreneurs were destroyed. Thus, the Brazilian Federal Government, through Federal Law No. 13.982/2020 8 and Provisional Measure No. 937/2020 9 , created the “Emergency Social Protection Aid to people in vulnerable situations, due to the COVID-19 pandemic”. Such assistance enables the possibility of receiving 600.00 R$ for three months for the people in those situations. The Brazilian Government has reserved a fund of 98 billion R$ for the payment of the aforementioned emergency aid. As this aid would not reach normal companies, even small ones, the sector demanded much more Government action in this sense, as there were no more sales, tourism was at a standstill. Accordingly, the Brazilian Government published Provisional Measure No. 944/2020 10 , which created the so-called “Emergency Employment Support Program”, thus becoming possible for all companies, including tourism companies, to borrow money to be used to pay their employees’ wages. With the Federal Government reserveding 40 billion R$ for such loans, some characteristics and requirements were created, among which: 6 Source : http://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/portaria-n-139-de-3-de-abril-de-2020-251138204 . 7 Source : http://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/portaria-n-150-de-7-de-abril-de-2020-251705942 . 8 Source : http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2020/lei/L13982.htm 9 Source : http://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/medida-provisoria-n-937-de-2-de-abril-de-2020- 250915948 10 Source : http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2019-2022/2020/Mpv/mpv944.htm