Klang lawmaker Charles Santiago is upbeat about the possibility that the government will accept his rental relief fund proposal for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
This came after his meeting with Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz yesterday.
According to Charles, the minister had expressed keen interest in the idea and will consider it ahead of the second reading of the Temporary Measures for Government Financing (Covid-19) Bill 2020, slated for tomorrow.
The bill proposes an additional RM20 billion of taxpayers' money to be allocated for Covid-19 relief expenditure.
Speaking to Malaysiakini, the DAP MP said one point in need of further discussion will be how the rental relief fund can be disbursed to SMEs in need.
“In general, (the meeting) was quite positive. We talked about the rollout mechanism where if the government goes ahead with it, how do you do it?
“Because in the case of wage subsidies you can use the Human Resources Ministry and the Social Security Organisation (Socso) [...] but in this case, there is no precedent and there is no ministry that focuses on this,” he said.
Charles is proposing that Putrajaya allow SMEs to apply for up to RM8,000 per month for a period of six months to cover rental costs.
One suggestion, he said, was to use local councils to disburse the funds.
“Local councils issue permits to small and big businesses so they will know the businesses and what they are doing.
“So he (Tengku Zafrul) asked us to do a bit more work on the rollout,” he added.
Charles expects to be able to present his team’s proposals to the minister next week.
The lawmaker previously gathered representatives from the food and beverage, hairdressing, pharmaceutical, medical tailoring sectors to explain why SMEs needed help to make rent.
Rent constitutes one of their biggest fixed operating costs at a time when revenue and spending power has dropped.
The business owners contended that existing government initiatives like wage subsidies and tax breaks for property owners who reduce rental rates were insufficient.
SMEs made up 98.5 percent of the domestic economy in 2016. - Mkini
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