Muhyiddin: Six-month loan moratorium to be granted to all borrowers regardless of income

PETALING JAYA: A six-month loan moratorium will be granted to all borrowers regardless of their income group, says Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said in a special address on Monday (June 28) that the government was aware of the grouses made by all groups and not just the B40 income group.

"With that, I would like to announce with the cooperation of banks that a six-month moratorium will be given to all individual borrowers, including those from B40, M40 or T20 groups, as well as micro entrepreneurs," he said when announcing the Pemulih aid package.

The loan moratorium is similar to the one announced in March last year when the country went into a lockdown for the first time, which was not only for those in the B40 group.

Muhyiddin said that there will be no conditions or documents required in the application.

“There won’t be conditions such as a reduction in salary, loss of job or documents that need to be submitted for the application,” added the Prime Minister

He said that the loan moratorium will also be offered to small and medium enterprises subject to review and approval by the banks, adding that applications for the loan moratorium will begin on July 7.

“Borrowers will only need to apply and sign an agreement to alter the terms of their loan,” he said.

Muhyiddin also said that the EPF will introduce a new withdrawal facility called i-Citra where a total of 12.6mil EPF members can make withdrawals of up to RM5,000 with a fixed payment rate of RM1,000 per month for five months, subject to the members’ total EPF savings.

This is expected to channel RM30bil to the people for their daily needs, he added.

Members can start applying for the EPF withdrawal facility on the i-Citra online portal at icitra.kwsp.gov.my from July 15, 2021, with the first payment expected to be credited to the member's account in August.