The Malaysian government pumped in an economic stimulus package worth some 295 billion ringgit ($69.2 billion) aimed at helping Malaysians and businesses tide over during the movement control order (MCO), says Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

If the MCO had to be enforced again, it would be counterproductive to the efforts made by the government, and the nation would stand to lose two billion ringgit daily while millions of Malaysians would also lose their source of income, said Muhyiddin.

Over 2.75 million jobs have been saved under the wage subsidy and worker retention programme introduced under the Prihatin and Penjana economic recovery packages introduced by the government, he said.

“Besides that, over 800,000 businesses, including micro and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) became beneficiaries of these packages.

“These packages were estimated to have contributed to more than three per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) this year.

“If the MCO had to be enforced again, one of the impacts would include the estimated GDP growth in 2021 not being achieved.

“Businesses would have to close again and the unemployment rate which was at 5.3 per cent in May 2020 might increase sharply.

“This is something that we must avoid, ” he said during a televised special address on Monday.

Spelling out some initiatives rolled out by the Perikatan Nasional government during the MCO, Muhyiddin said to date, 11.14 billion ringgit has been channelled to 10.4 million Bantuan Prihatin Nasional aid recipients.

As many as 1.4 million e-hailing drivers have also received cash allowance of 500 ringgit, amounting to 34 million ringgit in total while 477,000 taxi drivers, tour guides and bus drivers had received cash allowance of 600 ringgit or a total of 28.8 million ringgit.

“As many as 7.7 million consumers also received a 50 per cent discount on their electric bill worth 312.32 ringgit in total and 1.4 million users received a 15 per cent discount worth 185.75 million ringgit.

“Meanwhile, 65 per cent of households received the moratorium on bank loan payments altogether worth 38.4 billion, ” he said.

In aid for entrepreneurs, Muhyiddin said as many as 545,000 micro-entrepreneurs had received the Prihatin special grant worth 1.6 billion ringgit in total.

A total of 7,000 people received the Bank Simpanan Nasional microcredit facility worth 247 million ringgit while over 23,000 people received the Tekun microcredit facility worth 177 million ringgit.

“Wage subsidy amounting to 7.4 billion ringgit has also been channelled. This initiative has given benefits to 834,000 employers and 6.7 million workers nationwide, ” he added.

Muhyiddin said he believed that many Malaysians affected by the Covid-19 pandemic had received benefits from the government’s aid programmes.

THE STAR (MALAYSIA)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK