FOLLOWING the confirmation that the current movement control order (MCO 3.0) will be extended another two weeks until June 28, the Small and Medium Enterprises Association (SAMENTA) Malaysia is still hoping that the Government will reconsider this decision.
In a statement released late yesterday, SAMENTA reiterated how it has never called for a full movement control order (FMCO), and would have preferred to allow MCO 3.0 to run its course, with economic activities allowed at reduced capacity with stringent SOPs in place.
However, after the FMCO was announced, SAMENTA has made requests for assistance including an automatic moratorium with no additional penalty or interest and wage subsidy until the end of the year.
“If the Government is determined to continue with MCO for as long as it takes, we plead to the Government to allow economic activities with stringent SOP. This is especially as there is no visibility of how long the MCO will last,” said SAMENTA chairman Datuk William Ng.
“In addition, we hope the government can consider extending the wage subsidy to the end of the year, impose an automatic bank loan moratorium with interest waived until the end of the year and suspend all statutory contributions including tax installments from May to December 2021,” he added.
According to Ng, many of the association’s members have expressed fear and disappointment at how their savings are now fully depleted, decades of hard work down the drain and even some of their employees are offering to cut their own salaries seeing how bad the situation is.
“The panic and distress on the ground is very real,” Ng pointed out. – June 12, 2021
