Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng has questioned the move by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to announce the extension of the recovery movement control order (MCO) until the end of the year without any additional economic aid package.
"DAP expresses surprise that (the government is) extending the recovery MCO without extending the moratorium on bank loans by six months and an additional injection of RM45 billion to the Covid-19 Economic Fund.
"This will adversely affect efforts to save jobs, small and medium enterprises (SME) and now manufacturers," Lim said in a statement today.
"The prime minister should realise the extension of the recovery MCO will have negative economic consequences that must be alleviated with financial assistance.
"Assurances that the Covid-19 pandemic is under control will be more heartening to workers and small businesses if financial measures are also announced to quickly lift our economy out of the current recession," he added.
In a telecast address last night, Muhyiddin assured that the pandemic was under control but said the government needed to continue being able to enforce the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 to handle outbreaks when they occur.
“This means the government still needs legal mechanisms to continue its efforts to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19. Thus, in the interest of everyone, the government has decided that the recovery MCO will be extended to Dec 31," he said.
The Bagan MP reminded Muhyiddin that over 41 percent of manufacturers have said their businesses would only be sustainable for less than a year as a result of revenue loss following the Covid-19 lockdown.
"The unemployment rate of 4.9 percent in June is still high and also hides the fact that many are underemployed and professionals such as pilots are doing jobs other than flying aeroplanes," Lim added.
He also highlighted that the Department of Statistics had in April reported that 84 percent of private-sector employees had suffered pay cuts whilst Bank Negara had observed that during the second quarter, private-sector wages fell by 5.6 percent from a year ago.
"The situation would be much worse without the government stimulus packages, wage subsidies and bank moratoriums. Clearly an additional RM45 billion is needed to the existing RM45 billion fund injection (totalling RM90 billion) to save not only jobs and the SMEs but also manufacturers."
An extension of the moratorium of bank loans by another six months was also necessary, Lim added.
He said that eight million individual Malaysians and companies have benefited from the value of the loan moratorium at RM74.3 billion.
"Extending the loan moratorium by another six months when it expires on Sept 30 will only cost banks another RM6.4 billion.
"The banking industry can afford RM6.4 billion when it recorded profits after tax of RM32 billion last year. Even if the banking industry refuses to bear the cost, the government should come up with the RM6.4 billion," he argued.
"With Malaysia recording our worst economic growth performance of a 17.1 percent contraction in the second quarter, urgent economic measures must be taken to pull the country out of recession quickly.
"Why wait until next year when the government can help now? Saving jobs and businesses must be the priority now, not next year," Lim added. - Mkini
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