Territory business owners were caught off guard as the application deadline for the NT Government’s Business Improvement Grants was cut short on Friday, a week before its supposed deadline of May 1.

Department of Trade, Business, and Innovation CEO Shaun Drabsch said in an interview on Mix104.9 that 1,420 applications were received, eating up the entire $20 million budget for the scheme that was being funded through the Small Business Survival Fund.

Mr Drabsch said they were expecting only around 1000 applicants if everyone took the full $20,000 grant.

According to the BusinessNT Small Business Survival Fund webpage, submissions are closed because “the estimated value of applications received to date has exceeded the funding limit for this program”.

“We can only accept applications within the budget that has been allocated,” Mr Drabsch said.

The Jobs Rescue and Recovery scheme’s Small Business Survival Fund is a $50 million initiative to help Territory small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions imposed.

The government said the fund was designed with three goals; to help local businesses survive through the partial or full shut-down period; help local businesses adjust and adapt to take advantage of the new consumer environment; and to prepare local businesses to take advantage of the rebounding economy when the COVID-19 crisis is over.

The Small Business Survival Fund is part of the Jobs Rescue and Recovery Package and the Tourism Resilience Package.

Mr Drabsch stressed that a 50 per cent reduction in turnover of the businesses is one of the important eligibility criteria of the grant.

“We’ve exercised some discretion; there are businesses that had 40% reduction turnover, but looking at the continuation of that low turnover going forward,” he said. “We’ve been flexible and try to be as supportive as we can.”

Mr Drabsch said that the department of business is trying to make the eligibility as simple as possible, but vital information is needed to be able to make a fair assessment as to whether the turnover is actually reduced.

“This has been a real problem for us because a number of applicants have not put the information we need to make the assessments,” he said. “We had to go back to them and talk to them and try to get that information. We can’t give that money out until we give that assessment. That’s a bit frustrating for us.”

The NT Government also imposed a “sudden deadline” for applications of its Home Improvement Scheme package on April 17 – months before its original deadline of October, causing some anger by homeowners who weren’t able to get quotes in time. One day’s notice was given of that new deadline, whereas the business grant program shut down with no notice.