All employers in MCO areas eligible to apply for wage subsidy programme, says PM

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The Wage Subsidy Programme 3.0 under the Social Security Organisation (Socso) will be improved, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Prime Minister said all employers operating under the movement control order are eligible to apply, regardless of sectors.

He said eligible employers would receive a wage subsidy of RM600 for each of their employees earning less than RM4,000 for a period of one month.

"Besides that, the limit of 200 employees for each application will be increased to 500 employees.

"This initiative involves an additional allocation of RM1bil, which is estimated to benefit 250,000 employers who hire more than 2.6 million employees," he said.

Muhyiddin said this when delivering a special address on the Malaysian Economic and Rakyat's Protection Scheme (Permai) assistance package which was telecast live on television stations and social media platforms here Monday (Jan 18).

For those who lost their jobs during the MCO period, he said the government had agreed to relax the application conditions for the Employment Insurance System (SIP Prihatin) assistance.

"Employees who do not meet the minimum contribution, or whose service contract was not extended after at least three renewals, are now allowed to apply for the SIP Prihatin financial assistance of 30% of their salary for three months," he said.

To assist the cash flow of micro-enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Muhyiddin said the government would expedite the implementation of microcredit schemes, as previously announced.

"A total of RM1bil in microcredit facilities is provided which includes soft loans amounting to RM390mil by Bank Simpanan Nasional,

RM350mil by Agrobank and RM295mil by TEKUN, ” he said.

To continue to support entrepreneurs and businesses to generate income through online sales or e-commerce platforms, the Prime Minister said the government would expedite the implementation of the SME and Micro SME e-Commerce and Shop Malaysia Online campaigns with a total allocation of RM300mil.

"Through the campaign, he said micro entrepreneurs will get business guidance and buyers will enjoy savings through online shopping," he said.

For the additional Prihatin Special Grant (GKP Tambahan), he said the government would expand the GKP Tambahan assistance of RM1,000 to 500,000 SMEs in seven states under the MCO, while 300,000 SMEs in other states would receive RM500.

"The expansion of the GKP Tambahan initiative, or GKP Permai, involves an additional allocation of RM650mil.

"Nevertheless, if there are states that turn into red zones and are declared under the MCO, the government is ready to help by channelling additional assistance to SMEs in those states immediately," he said.