AS businesses continue to struggle and falter during the pandemic crisis, a Selangor lawmaker is working with the state government to introduce several mechanisms to protect small traders.
With that, Klang MP Charles Santiago is urging the Selangor state government to help small-time businessmen under an initiative called the Rental Relief Fund (RRF).
“My team had also approached the Finance Ministry so that the latter could allocate an amount to help in the programme, to assist small traders, protect job security and overall economic recovery,” he told FocusM.
Elaborating, Santiago said that many small traders in Selangor are still struggling due to after-effects of the first movement control order (MCO) itself, with many of them unable to operate under full capacity due to strict standard operating procedures (SOP) imposed.
As the businesses could not operate in full capacity, many of them are struggling on a daily basis, concerned on how to carry on with little assistance provided.
“Their fixed costs, including rental, usually takes up 30% of their costs. In city areas, rental can fetch up to RM30,000 a month.
“With high costs and dwindling sales, they are barely making enough to sustain themselves. We must understand that relaxed MCO does not equate to economic recovery,” he stressed.
In addition, weak consumer sentiments and low purchasing powers have dampened domestic consumption not only in Selangor but across Malaysia.
“The economy is weak, which is affecting small traders’ cash flow and their effort to digitalise their business,” he added.
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Unlike big businesses, Santiago said that small traders do not have large cash reserves as a backup, leaving many of them folding within months.
“They could not pay their employees and financial obligations with banks. This gravitates them towards loan sharks which makes things even worse,” he opined.
Touching on the RRF, Santiago said that he had recommended to Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari to implement certain measures such as:
- Reduce rentals for small traders who use state government premises by at least 50%, for the next six months
- Provide rental subsidies to small traders who use private premises and have lost income by 30%, with the cap of RM4,000 monthly, for the next six months
- Freeze rentals for state government-owned premises until December this year
- Eviction moratorium until December this year.
To aid the programme, Santiago urged the Amirudin to establish a RRF unit at every local councils in the state. This will help small traders to register at their locality, with the funding chanelled directly to the affected parties via the local authority.
“RRF will help Selangorians who are struggling to make ends meet at this unprecedented time. With this, we can continue to retain jobs and mitigate impact triggered by the pandemic,” he opined.
On that note, Santiago said: “I have spoked to Amirudin on the matter and he looks very keen on it. He had promised to deliberate the matter with the state excos soon.” – April 29, 2021.
Photo credit: RinggitPlus
