Govt provided an economic stimulus package of RM295bil to help M'sians, businesses during MCO, says PM

PETALING JAYA: The government pumped in an economic stimulus package worth some RM295bil aimed at helping Malaysians and businesses tide over during the movement control order (MCO), says Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic).

If the MCO had to be enforced again, it would be counterproductive to the efforts made by the government, and the nation would stand to lose RM2bil daily while millions of Malaysians would also lose their source of income, said Muhyiddin.

Over 2.75 million jobs have been saved under the wage subsidy and worker retention programme introduced under the Prihatin and Penjana economic recovery packages introduced by the government, he said.

“Besides that, over 800,000 businesses, including micro and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) became beneficiaries of these packages.

“These packages were estimated to have contributed to more than 3% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) this year.

“If the MCO had to be enforced again, one of the impacts would include the estimated GDP growth in 2021 not being achieved.

“Businesses would have to close again and the unemployment rate which was at 5.3% in May 2020 might increase sharply.

“This is something that we must avoid, ” he said during a televised special address on Monday (July 20).

Spelling out some initiatives rolled out by the Perikatan Nasional government during the MCO, Muhyiddin said to this date, RM11.14bil has been channelled to 10.4 million Bantuan Prihatin Nasional aid recipients.

As many as 1.4 million e-hailing drivers have also received cash allowance of RM500, amounting to RM34mil in total while 477,000 taxi drivers, tour guides and bus drivers had received cash allowance of RM600, or a total of RM28.8mil.

“As many as 7.7 million consumers also received a 50% discount on their electric bill worth RM312.32 in total and 1.4 million users received a 15% discount worth RM185.75mil.

“Meanwhile, 65% of households received the moratorium on bank loan payments altogether worth RM38.4bil, ” he said.

In aid for entrepreneurs, Muhyiddin said as many as 545,000 micro entrepreneurs had received the Prihatin special grant worth RM1.6bil in total.

A total of 7,000 people received the Bank Simpanan Nasional microcredit facility worth RM247mil while over 23,000 people received the Tekun microcredit facility worth RM177mil.

“Wage subsidy amounting to RM7.4bil has also been channelled.

“This initiative has given benefits to 834,000 employers and 6.7 million workers nationwide, ” he added.

Muhyiddin said he believed that many Malaysians affected by the Covid-19 pandemic had received benefits from the government’s aid programmes.

“These initiatives are temporary in nature and are aimed at helping all of you go through hardships in life, ” he said.