VIENNA (Reuters) -Austria’s federal disaster fund will more than triple to 1 billion euros ($1.11 billion) and companies severely affected by flooding will be able to postpone tax payments, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday, announcing measures in response to extreme weather.
The fund is being increased from a previously set volume of around 300 million euros.
The package of measures comes after Austria and other areas of central Europe were hit by the region’s worst floods in at least two decades.
“The last few days have been enormously challenging for many regions in Austria and our neighbouring countries and have caused great suffering and unimaginable destruction,” Nehammer said in a statement.
Lower Austria, which the government said was particularly hard hit, received its first aid on Tuesday, with the government providing 45 million euros from the disaster fund.
Austrian parliamentary elections are being held on Sept. 29.
The opposition has questioned how the measures announced on Wednesday will be funded.
($1 = 0.8990 euros)
(Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich; Writing Marleen Kaesebier; editing by Matthias Williams and Rachel More)
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