Business community supports full lockdown but requests various types of aid

At the same time, they want the government to provide assistance ranging from loan repayment moratorium to one-off cash grants.

SME Association of Malaysia president Datuk Michael Kang said the association, which represents the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), agreed on the lockdown move and proposed several measures to be carried out by the government.

"There will be 2.8 million informal sector and micro entrepreneurs affected by the reduction in income, but hopefully the government can come out with a financial aid package to assist the affected businesses," he told Bernama.

Kang proposed that the government provide a full loan repayment moratorium especially for SMEs until December 2021 as well as wage and rental subsidy to mitigate the economic risk.

The Federation of Malaysian Business Associations, which represents over 260 business associations, also expressed support for the government but proposed five immediate steps.

These are moratorium-opt out programme for all businesses and individuals until Dec 31 this year; financial support; wage subsidy programme up to end of the year; utility cost subsidies; and statutory exemptions involving, among others, the Employees Provident Fund and Social Security Organisation contributions as well as Inland Revenue Board instalments for up to Dec 31, 2021.

Protem chairman Datuk Abdul Malik Abdullah said for utility subsidies, communications costs such as broadband should be discounted by 50 per cent while Tenaga Nasional Bhd should offer 100 per cent waiver for three months for non-essential business sectors and 30 per cent subsidy for retail customers.

"While we empathise with your (the government's) precarious position in balancing the live versus livelihood pendulum, we also seek you to sympathise with the one million businesses, and economically vulnerable 2.8 million Malaysians, comprising the self-employed, micro SMEs and small entrepreneurs, will be the most affected by the reduction in income and the uncertainties caused by COVID-19," he said.

Meanwhile, National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (NCCIM) president Tan Sri Ter Leong Yap suggested a slew of measures, including providing a one-off RM2,000-3,000 cash grant to eligible micro businesses and petty traders, as well as one-off cash assistance of RM500-RM600 to taxi operators, e-hailing drivers, hawkers, and daily or weekly paid employees with registered employers.

Considering this bleak forecast with the nationwide lockdown, he also called on the government to conduct large-scale testing and contact tracing to break the COVID-19 chain during the lockdown period.

He urged the government to speed up the supply of vaccines and vaccination rate in ensuring economic recovery, better health and far lower anxiety levels for citizens.

"To secure faster delivery of vaccines, we need to approve more vaccines from around the world and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) to expedite the approval of vaccines.

"(The government) must allow the private sector, including hospitals, to administer vaccines to expedite the vaccination process to the masses," he added.