CORONAVIRUS | The government has been told to exempt the employers from contributing to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Socso) for six months.
These were among the proposals suggested by the Malay Chambers of Commerce Malaysia (DPMM) and Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) ahead of Putrajaya's announcement by the end of March of a second stimulus package to contain the economic fallout due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The NGOs believed this would ease the burden of the business community, especially the small and medium enterprise which comprises 70 percent of the businesses in the country.
In a joint statement, DPMM president Abd Halim Husin and MTEM CEO Ahmad Yazid Othman (above) said they wish the government would announce a more comprehensive stimulus package.
While noting that the right measures had been taken to help Malaysians during this testing period, they said the government should also pay attention to the SME community.
"It is obvious that they (the government's measure) are not adequate, looking at the statement by various stakeholders and compared with what had happened," they added.
"Something extraordinary is needed in such a situation. Many of the big companies able to continue operation by reducing their staff and they continue to operate at home.
"The reality is all economic sectors must continue to operate to support the businesses and business operators although they faced constrain due to the movement control order (MCO).
"We put our hope in the government to table a more comprehensive stimulus package as (we had) voiced it before," they said.
They suggested that the government and its agencies expedite the issuance of SME funds which have been approved or nearly approved.
They said the government and the relevant agencies cannot use the MCO as an excuse to delay or stop the granting of entrepreneur funds.
"(The government should also) exempt them from paying sales and services tax (SST) and taxes related to tourism and other industries that had lost revenues."
The government should be creative and brave in its action so that the economic activities can continue, they added.
Malaysia went into a partial shutdown on March 18. This is expected to last into March 31 but could be extended.
During the movement control order, all non-essential businesses are not allowed to operate, causing loss of income including amongst small traders.
As of noon yesterday, Malaysia recorded 1,518 Covid-19 cases with 14 deaths.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced measures to help Malaysians, which included allowing the employees to withdraw up to RM500 a month from Account 2 for the next 12 months beginning April 1.
He also announced that the government has agreed to extend the moratorium on repayment for the Higher Education Loan Fund (PTPTN) from three months to six months.
Muhyiddin said the moratorium was effective yesterday until Sept 30 involving a sum of RM750 million for 1.5 million borrowers.
An additional allocation of RM500 million will be given to Health Ministry for the purchases of medical equipment. An allocation of RM100 million will also be set aside to hire 2,000 new staff especially nurses on a contract basis.
Putrajaya will allocate RM130 million to other states to assist the state governments to combat the pandemic. - Mkini
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