The Dutch government has expanded its support measures for industry to the end of the third quarter of this year, as expected, adding a further €6bn to the bill.

In total, the government has now invested some €80bn to support companies and the self-employed during the pandemic, finance minister Wopke Hoekstra told Thursday’s press conference.

‘Things are going in the right direction,’ Hoekstra said. ‘Our economy is strong, our society is strong and the epidemiological outlook is positive… nevertheless lots of companies and workers are still living in uncertainty and … these measures are explicitly meant for companies which are still struggling with the impact of the coronavirus regulations.’

The turnover-dependent NOW, TOZO and TVL schemes are all being expanded for a further three months as are specialist packages for the cultural sector.

‘Companies are facing a lot of uncertainty,’ social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees told the press conference. ‘But these measures depend on turnover, and that means there will be less demand as companies’ turnover goes up.’

As predicted earlier, the government has also decided that companies which have deferred tax payments will now not have to start repayments until October 2022 and will have five rather than three years to pay off the debt.