SEED promises to deliver the goods

The agency blames Indian taxi drivers for submitting incomplete applications for the delay in getting Tekun loans.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Special Secretariat for Empowerment of Indian Entrepreneurs (SEED) today urged various parties not to politicise the special allocations meant for Indian taxi drivers made by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

“We are transparent and we will keep any promise made by the government,” said SEED director Dr AT Kumararajah at a press conference here.

Kumararajah also clarified that the government never promised RM50 million to Indian taxi drivers as claimed by some.

he government promised was that Indian cabbies will get access to the RM50 million from Tekun which was announced in the 2013 budget,” he said.

According to him, there was a pilot project launched in February 2013 and so far SEED has received about 960 applications from Indian taxi drivers.

Out of these, 570 applications have been approved and funds totaling RM4.8 million have been disbursed.

“About 390 applications are still in process,” he added.

On Monday, a group of vexed taxi drivers gathered in front of MIC headquarters claiming that the promised loans had been long time in coming.

During the gathering, Kuala Lumpur Makkal Communication Taxi Drivers Association president K Muthu claimed that the government and SEED have failed to fulfill their promise made on April 18, during an event in front of some 7,000 cabbies at the Batu Caves temple grounds.

He also said that Tekun CEO Abdul Rahim Hassan has “cheated” the taxi drivers by failing to deliver the loan within a week from April 18.

However, Kumararajah clarified that Abdul Rahim only promised to process applications that were “complete” within a week.

“There is no such thing that all the applicants will get their money in one week since most of them do not have proper documents” he added.

Kumararajah also denied SEED’s involvement in any money collection from taxi drivers in order to process their loan applications.

“Yes, we heard that a private taxi association collected money from the cabbies. But, we have not authorised anyone to collect money,” he said.