Article 69U.K.Specific eligibility rules for grants and repayable assistance
1.Contributions in kind in the form of provision of works, goods, services, land and real estate for which no cash payment supported by invoices, or documents of equivalent probative value, has been made, may be eligible on condition that the eligibility rules of the ESI Funds and the programme so provide and that all the following criteria are fulfilled:
(a)the public support paid to the operation which includes contributions in kind does not exceed the total eligible expenditure, excluding contributions in kind, at the end of the operation;
(b)the value attributed to contributions in kind does not exceed the costs generally accepted on the market in question;
(c)the value and the delivery of the contribution can be independently assessed and verified;
(d)in the case of provision of land or real estate, a cash payment, for the purposes of a lease agreement of a nominal amount per annum not exceeding a single unit of the currency of the Member State, may be made;
(e)in the case of contributions in kind in the form of unpaid work, the value of that work is determined by taking into account the verified time spent and the rate of remuneration for equivalent work.
The value of the land or real estate referred to in point (d) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall be certified by an independent qualified expert or duly authorised official body and shall not exceed the limit laid down in point (b) of paragraph 3.
2.Depreciation costs may be considered as eligible where the following conditions are fulfilled:
(a)the eligibility rules of the programme allow for it;
(b)the amount of the expenditure is duly justified by supporting documents having equivalent probative value to invoices for eligible costs where reimbursed in the form referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 67(1);
(c)the costs relate exclusively to the period of support for the operation;
(d)public grants have not contributed towards the acquisition of the depreciated assets.
3.The following costs shall not be eligible for a contribution from the ESI Funds and from the amount of support transferred from the Cohesion Fund to the CEF as referred to in Article 92(6):
(a)interest on debt, except in relation to grants given in the form of an interest rate subsidy or guarantee fee subsidy;
(b)the purchase of land not built on and land built on in the amount exceeding 10 % of the total eligible expenditure for the operation concerned. For derelict sites and for those formerly in industrial use which comprise buildings, that limit shall be increased to 15 %. In exceptional and duly justified cases, the limit may be raised above the respective aforementioned percentages for operations concerning environmental conservation;
(c)value added tax except where it is non-recoverable under national VAT legislation.