R Yaakob
I REFER to the statement by MCA Youth Chief Nicole Wong who had claimed that the Pemerkasa Plus economic stimulus package had once again ignored the middle-income group (M40).
A closer inspection of the plan announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on the eve of the national lockdown which started on June 1 showed that Wong’s assertion is not true.
While she’s right that the M40 group will not be receiving direct cash aid such as the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) given to the B40 segment, there are still a host of incentives the former will receive to tide them over during these economically trying times.
A sizable number of the M40 group are under the payroll of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), many of which had to cease operations during the first two weeks of the total lockdown. Understandably, there are concerns about job security but the PM has announced that under Pemerkasa Plus, the wage subsidy programme (PSU) would be extended for another month.
The current PSU is into its third phase, having first been announced in March 2020 as an incentive for employers to retain their staff. Cumulatively, the subsidy has been running for around 12 months, with the latest costing the Government RM1.5 bil, and expected to benefit 2.5 million workers and 200,000 employees.
How can we say that the M40 group has been sidelined when the Government has injected billions to ensure that many of them are still retained as employees?
Besides the wage subsidy programme, the Government has also set aside RM1.5 bil microcredit loans for SMEs to help tide them over at an interest rate of 3%. This is on top of the balance RM5 bil loan facility set aside earlier by Bank Negara for SMEs to ease the latter’s cash flow.
Wong is right that the moratorium for bank loans is only automatic for those in the B40 group. But since the automatic moratorium expired in September last year, banks have allowed borrowers to restructure and reschedule their repayments on a case-by-case basis.
According to the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM), over 90% of borrowers’ applications for repayment and extension of moratoriums have been approved. So, the question of the M40 being denied of aid again should not arise.
There are other areas which Pemerkasa Plus benefits from the M40 group, such as the extension on the waiver on stamp duty under the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) and the exemption on sales and service tax for cars, both to Dec 31. Most of the recipients of both the schemes are from the M40 category as the B40 are unlikely to make big purchases during this time.
Lastly, there’s also the e-Belia programme where e-wallet credit of RM150 is given to Malaysian aged 18 to 20 and full-time students. Not only will this boost the purchasing power of the recipients, it will also help many online traders, many of whom are from the M40 group, increase their sales.
In closing, we need to realise that a responsible Government would need to prioritise the use of its limited resources. As it is, the situation among the B40 is more dire than that of the M40. Having said that, the Government has also extended help to the M40, even if some of them were indirect, but no less insignificant. – June 2, 2021
R Yaakob is from Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
