A RM250 billion stimulus for Malaysia due to COVID-19. Details here (in English)

Yes, the second stimulus package is RM250 billion. The first one was RM20 billion announced earlier. (article here) It’s called Pakej Rangsangan Ekonomi Prihatin Rakyat (PRIHATIN) Within this RM250 billion package, nearly RM128 billion will be for the welfare of the people, RM100 billion for the business including SMEs and RM2 billion to improve the resilience of the economy. These are on top of the recently announced RM20 billion stimulus package. Of the package, PM said, “No one will be left behind.”

RM500 million to the Ministry of Health to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Another RM1 billion will be provided to buy equipments and services to fight COVID-19 and this includes engagement of services from the private sector too.

In the first stimulus package, the government has decided to provide a special allowance of RM400 to doctors, nurses and other medical personnels who are directly involved in this COVID-19 pandemic. This will be increased to RM600 beginning 1st April 2020 until the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

At the same time, the government will also be giving an allowance of RM200 to the army, police, customs and immigration, civil defence and RELA members who are directly involved in the Movement Control Order (MCO). This allowance will begin from 1st April 2020 until the end of COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that a total of 169,000 additional personnels will be getting this benefit.

To reduce the financial burden to the households whose incomes were affected, the government will also be providing the National PRIHATIN Assistance under a one-off payment with an allocation of close to RM10 billion and this includes the M40 households too. They include private sector workers, FELDA settlers, farmers, fishermen, small businessmen and all the others grouped in the M40 households and below. The payment is as follow:

1. RM1,600 to nearly 4 million households with a monthly income of RM4,000 and below. RM1,000 will be paid in April 2010 and RM600 will be paid in May 2020.
2. RM1,000 for nearly 1.1 million households earning RM4,000 to RM8,000 per month and they will get RM500 in April and another RM500 in Mei.
3. RM800 for 3 million individuals aged 21 and above and has an income of RM2,000 and below. RM500 will be paid in April and another RM300 in May 2020.
4. RM500 to 400,000 singles aged 21 and above who has a monthly salary between RM2,000 – RM4,000. RM250 will be paid in April and another RM250 will be paid in May.

Besides that, the current cash handout under the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) will have an allocation of RM3.2 billion and this will be paid in July 2020.

Students in tertiary institutions will get a one-off RM200 and this will be paid in May 2020. This will involve a total payment of RM270 million.

For the elderly, the children in protection homes, people with special needs and OKU, bachelors and natives, the government will be working with relevant NGOs with an allocation of RM25 million for food, health products and accommodation.

Beyond the PTPTN, the deferment of payment for 6 months will also be extended to borrowers for PTPK beginning 1st April 2020 till 30th September 2020. This will assist 174,500 borrowers.

Currently, mySalam allows the B40 who were admitted to hospitals to apply for a loss of income allowance of RM50 per day up to a maximum of 14 days. In addition to this, this initiative will now cover B40 members who were quarantined under the patient-under-investigation (PUI) too.

The rental for those staying in PPRs would also be exempted from rental for 6 months and this will cost the government RM3 million.

In the stimulus package 1, there was an allocation of RM500 million to cover the discount of 15% for electricity bills for the tourism industry and 2% for the commercial and industrial sector, agriculture and even households in Peninsular Malaysia beginning 1st April 2020.

For the telecommunication and multimedia industry, a few special packages will be offered by the telecommunication companies. One such special package to be offered would be free internet to all customers with a total value of RM600 million from 1st April 2020 until the end of the MCO.

For the civil servants, there will also be a one-off payment to over 1.5 million for those with gred 56 and below including those under contract. The payment will be in April 2020. nThere will also be a RM500 one-off payment to the civil servant retirees too and this will be paid in April 2020. This will benefit 850,000 retirees.

In this critical period, an allocation of RM1 billion will be given to the Food Guarantee Fund (Dana Jaminan Makanan). This will ensure the food supply will always be sufficient and guaranteed.

A salary subsidy will also be introduced to help employers maintain their people. For this, RM600 will be provided for every worker per month for 6 months. This will be for workers earning RM4,000 and below and for employers whose revenue has dropped over 50% since 1st January 2020. To qualify, the employers must not retrench or even to ask the employees to take unpaid level within 3 months after this programme. Employers are also not allowed to cut the salary of the workers too. This move is expected to benefit 3.3 million employees with an allocation of RM5.9 billion.

For the e-hailing drivers who were working full-time, they will be given a one-off RM500 and this will benefit 120,000 e-hailing drivers with an allocation of RM60 million. In the first stimulus plan, a one-off payment of RM600 to the taxi drivers will be paid in April 2020.

For the workers in the cleaning service and even food provision in schools, IPTA, civil training institutions and other government agencies, the government will bear the salaries for the contractors for the period of MCO even though the workers were not working. This will involve an allocation of RM110 million.

To assist the SME industry including micro entrepreneurs, the government and Bank Negara Malaysia will allocate an additional fund of RM4.5 billion which will cover 5 major initiatives. They include:

1. To add to the Special Relief Facility another RM3 billion for a total of RM5 billion. The interest will also be reduced ffrom 3.75% to 3.5%.
2. Increase the fund size by RM1 billion to RM6.8 billion for the Kemudahan Semua Sektor to increase the payment access for SMEs.
3. An increase of a RM500 million fund under the Micro-Credit Scheme to make the whole fund become RM700 million. This is a scheme under Bank Simpanan National with an interest of just 2% without the need for collateral.
4. SMEs with less than 4 years of record could also apply for the BizMula-i and BizWanita-i for a funding of up to RM300,000.
5. Syarikat Jaminan Pembiayaan Perniagaan (SJPP) will provide a guarantee facility of RM5 billion as well as to increase the guarantee percentage from 70% to 80% for SMEs with difficulties in getting a loan.

The government will also assist companies with cashflow issues. For these companies, these are the following measures:

1. The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will introduce a Khidmat Rundingan Majikan beginning 15 April 2020. This service will help a cash flow savings of up to RM10 billion. This initiative will benefit over 480,000 SMEs and affected companies and save up to 8 million jobs.
2. Exempting the levy to the HRDF for 6 months beginning April 2020. This will help companies to save a cashflow of up to RM440 million.
3. SMEs will also get a deferment from paying the income tax instalment for three months beginning 1st April 2020.
4. To assist the B40 entrepreneurs and Malaysians who lost their livelihood means, a social finance programme will be introduced with the help of the Islamic Finance institutions, state Islamic councils and other partners.

The government will also be launching a guarantee scheme of RM50 billion with a guarantee of up to 80% from the total loans for working capital purpose. This scheme will be managed by Danajamin and will be subjected to credit assessments. This scheme is for businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

Another RM2 billion will be allocated for projects such as road improvements, upgrade of dilapidated schools in Sabah and Sarawak, cleaning house of worships and police stations as well as the upgrade of tourism related facilities which will benefit the contractors within the G1 – G4 class.

At the same time, the small projects with a total value of RM2 billion from the first stimulus package will start being implemented. These projects include infrastructure construction in FELDA, repairing dilapidated schools in Sabah and Sarawak as well as repair of the homes for the rakyat termiskin.

All the projects under Budget 2020 will be continued. This includes ECRL, MRT2, Pelan Gentian Optik dan Kesalinghubungan Negara.

— end of the speech — For those who wants the full message, do click to download it here. If there are any discrepancy with the translation, please use the original copy in BM. Thanks.

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