With soaring profits banks must waive interest during moratorium, says Guan Eng

 

Lim Guan Eng calls for the new Cabinet to prioritise the livelihoods of Malaysians and businesses adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

PETALING JAYA: Banks, which are reaping high profits of late, should share their good fortune with their customers by waiving interest payments during the loan moratorium period, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today.

He said taking interest and making profits from distressed borrowers who are going under is not the “Malaysian Family” way as advocated by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob

The former finance minister said the banking industry recorded after tax profits of RM32.3 billion in 2019 and more than RM23 billion in 2020 despite the economic recession, adding that profits rose again in the first half of this year.

“The industry is expected to significantly improve on their profitability this year compared with 2019. This can be seen with Maybank’s net profit for the second quarter this year more than double to RM1.96 billion from RM941.73 million over the same period last year.

“Maybank also recorded RM2.39 billion net profits in the first quarter of 2021 compared with RM2.05 billion last year,” he said in a statement today.

Yesterday, Public Bank reported a net profit of RM1.38 billion for the second quarter of this year compared with RM1 billion posted in the same quarter in 2020.

Lim said with the many “losers” due to the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a need for the “winners” like the banks to help those who lost their jobs and businesses as well as those struggling to find work, let alone survive.

Meanwhile, Lim also referred to a Bloomberg report on the world’s largest economies surveyed for its monthly Covid Resilience Ranking, where Malaysia placed last among the 53 countries listed.

The report is a benchmark on the country’s ability to provide some sense of normalcy amid the pandemic.

“This is based on Malaysia’s infections per capita which is now among the highest in the world despite 61.1% of the adult population being fully vaccinated.

“This is not helped by an anaemic economic growth of around 4% for 2021 which belies the overly optimistic GDP growth of 7.5% in the 2021 Budget,” Lim said.

On the appointment of the new Cabinet which he described as “a recycled one”, Lim said it is imperative that the ministers do not forget the lessons of the past so as not to repeat the failures of the previous prime minister.

“Everyone knows what has gone wrong despite the imposition of serial movement control orders (MCOs) and the Emergency Proclamation.

“The current government must stop the double standards in enforcement, the policy flip-flops, the U-turns in SOPs, and the failure to vaccinate earlier,” he said.

He added that while focus is placed on winning the battle against Covid-19 and saving lives, immediate attention must be given to saving the livelihoods of countless Malaysians and businesses destroyed by the current economic recession. - FMT