More aid could be on the way, says Tengku Zafrul

 

Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said ‘reasonable assistance would be available in the near future’.

PETALING JAYA: More financial aid may be on the way for those affected by measures to contain Covid-19, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said today.

In a short Facebook post, he said the government had taken heed of the public’s requests, particularly about granting a further moratorium on loan repayments, and for further i-Sinar withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund.

“I’ve talked to the prime minister and related agencies. The government listens to the voice of the people and reasonable assistance will be announced in the near future,” he said.

Last month, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the Pemerkasa Plus package aimed at tiding the Malaysian public through the total lockdown.

However, the package was criticised by some for not being as comprehensive as the aid distributed during the first movement control order last March, with the loan moratorium now targeted and opt-in rather than automatic and all-encompassing.

The i-Sinar programme, which allowed eligible EPF holders to withdraw a portion of the Account 1 balance, was not reintroduced in the latest round of stimulus.

On Thursday, coordinating minister of the vaccine rollout Khairy Jamaluddin made a similar suggestion to Tengku Zafrul, hinting that another aid package was on the way.

“I believe the prime minister will be making the announcement soon on a big economic assistance package,” Khairy said. However, he did not offer details.

RM198 million for agriculture entrepreneurs

In a separate statement, agriculture minister Ronald Kiandee said a total of RM198.67 million in financing has been approved to help agricultural entrepreneurs affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The financing would be provided under the agrobank microcredit financing scheme through the national economic recovery plan (Penjana).

He said 15,612 small and medium enterprise and agricultural entrepreneurs had received financing from the overall RM350 million allocated to the microcredit scheme. - FMT