Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1265483
€1.50 THURSDAY 2 JULY 2020 • ISSUE 65 WWW.BUSINESSTODAY.COM.MT PAUL COCKS NUMEROUS retailers have been forced to lay off employees and – in some cases – close down the business, as measures imposed dur- ing the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossi- ble for them to meet financial obligations, es- pecially high rent, BusinessToday has learned. PAGE 3 PAGE 4 PAGE 3 INTERVIEW NIKHIL PATIL PGS 6 & 7 Editorial PAGE 5 CLEANER POLITICS FOR BETTER BUSINESS Retailers struggling to survive amid slow sales in post-COVID limbo Playing the long game App will scan and accept government vouchers, send cash to company's account PAGE 2 Cruise liners won't reach Malta until mid-August PORTS REOPEN AFTER COVID-19 LOCKDOWN MFSA withdraws Satabank plc license The remaining €20 voucher, of blue colour, can be used for Retail and Services provided by businesses who had to close due to legal notices 76 and 95 of March 2020. Four of these vouchers will be coloured red and can be used at Hotels, Accomodation, Restaurants, Bars and Diving Schools. ACCEPTING VOUCHERS Every resident in Malta will receive by registered post, 5 vouchers of €20 each, for a total of €100. Accepting the Vouchers Your app will only accept vouchers your business is entitled to. Therefore if your business is eligible for Red Vouchers only, you will not be able to scan Blue Vouchers and vice versa. The Government letter sent to you, states for which vouchers your business is eligible to. 5 2 1 Voucher Security Features The voucher has a number of security features. To make sure that the vouchers you accept are authentic, you are required to check each voucher presented to you under a UV light. For a voucher to be authentic, the €20 and the right hand vertical edge of the voucher, should illuminate under UV light. If a voucher does not illuminate under UV light, do not accept it. €20 RETAIL & SERVICES €100 VOUCHER €20 RESTAURANTS & ACCOMODATION €20 RESTAURANTS & ACCOMODATION €20 RESTAURANTS & ACCOMODATION €20 RESTAURANTS & ACCOMODATION MASSIMO COSTA ALONG with Malta's airport, the country's sea ports reopened on Wednesday after months of having been shut in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But while Malta International Air- port has already seen the first flights to and from Malta, the cruise passen- ger industry is somewhat different. • Businesses in Valletta making as little as 15% of last year's sales • Sliema retail outlets operating at around 40% of 2019 turnover