Small firms’ association MKB Nederland is urging junior economic affairs minister Mona Keijzer to cut the maximum amount of time big firms have to pay their bills from 60 to 30 days.

The organisation argues that many small firms are hard hit by delayed payments because big companies wait too long before clearing invoices. The 60 day limit was introduced in July 2017 and the average payment term experienced by small firms has since stretched to 40 days.

‘The law states that big firms can set payment terms of 60 days towards small firms and this has, in effect, become the new standard,’ MKB-Nederland chairman Jacco Vonhof told the Financieele Dagblad. ‘We warned that this would happen when the deadline was introduced.’