Government should not be stingy, double the injection of RM45 billion to help the people - Lim Guan Eng

Pakatan Harapan (PH) has reiterated its readiness to put aside political differences and fully support any financial measures that can reduce the burden of the people by doubling the existing RM45 billion fund injection, said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

He said, if that is not done, it could cause more people to lose their jobs, businesses will go bankrupt within a year as well as cause unexpected hardship to the people.

"When all that happens, it is too late if the government wants to inject an additional RM45 billion in funding because it will be too late, aid has arrived too little and too late," he said in a statement on Thursday.

The former Finance Minister said more than 41 per cent of Malaysian manufacturers admitted that their business would survive within one year only due to losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the findings were obtained from a survey conducted by the Federation of Manufacturers Malaysia (FMM) and the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER).

"What is interesting is that from the FMM survey in July, they said that they can survive for 12 months because of the government stimulus package, salary subsidy and bank moratorium.

"It is clear that an additional RM45 billion is needed in addition to the the existing RM45 billion fund injection (making it a total of RM90 billion) to save not only the jobs of Malaysians, SMEs but also manufacturers.

"The manufacturing sector is a key component of the Malaysian economy, accounting for 21 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 80 per cent of total exports in 2019," he added.

He also said the injection of an additional RM45 billion, the bank loan moratorium, electricity discounts and wage subsidies were very important due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that the global economy would contract by 4.9 per cent this year.

According to Guan Eng, the injection of the additional RM45 billion fund is also important for local businesses to survive and prevent the total unemployment of more than one million people.

"The Federal Government should not be stingy in injecting an additional RM45 billion, when there is sufficient liquidity in the domestic debt market of RM1.6 trillion to cover the loan," he said.

He said the total injection of funds amounting to RM90 billion with an additional RM45 billion is not too big, compared to Singapore's $108 billion Singapore stimulus package.

Previously, the government implemented a direct fiscal injection amounting to RM45 billion to fund the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN) and the National Economic Regeneration Plan (PENJANA) which is worth RM295 billion.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the amount also included a direct fiscal injection amounting to RM10 billion out of the total value of PENJANA worth RM35 billion announced by the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.