WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2020) US lawmakers should consider forgiving loans taken by small businesses amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and approve a second round of borrowing for those who could prove their revenues had considerably suffered, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said during a congressional hearing on Friday.
"We need to have a revenue test and make sure that money is going to businesses that have significant revenue declines," Mnuchin said during a hearing on a $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Mnuchin said that "blanket forgiveness" was surely something to be considered by the lawmakers.
Under the PPP, loans would be generally forgiven if an employer can furnish proof of not having laid off workers after securing borrowing from the program. Some companies that took loans have, however, complained that the PPP application for forgiveness was too tedious.
Several business and banking groups have pushed instead for blanket forgiveness for loans under $150,000.
Commenting on their call on Friday, Mnuchin did not say how small a loan had to be to qualify for automatic forgiveness, but suggested that it be paired with some form of fraud protection.
The US economy lost more than 20 million jobs between March and April, but regained over 7 million in the May-June period after the PPP's loan disbursements.
