Govt to review existing measures, introduce more assistance for affected groups - Tengku Zafrul

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the government was also taking into consideration economic sectors that would not be allowed to operate until the fourth phase, as outlined by the National Recovery Plan announced two days ago.

"Following discussions at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) level, we are prepared to provide additional assistance in the near future. As soon as the details are finalised, MoF will be able to draft the improvements for assisting the affected people and businesses," he said on the Awani 7:45 programme aired today.

Giving as an example the Wage Subsidy Programme (PSU), the minister said the government was reviewing the programme for sectors that were not allowed to operate until the last phase of the National Recovery Plan.

"So far, we have given a one-month PSU extension (up to July 31) as well assistance for all sectors that are unable to open under the third and fourth phases. We will study the assistance and its implementation as well as existing measures," he said.

It was reported that the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) had approved a total of 330,586 applications as of May 30, which benefited 2.72 million workers with a total payment of RM15.04 billion.

On the first and second phases, Tengku Zafrul said the country had suffered RM1 billion in losses daily throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) currently implemented, but the amount would be reduced in the coming phases.

He said the government would look at indicators such as the number of daily COVID-19 cases as benchmarks for the reopening of sectors in stages.

Malaysia recorded daily losses of RM2.4 billion during the MCO 1.0 implementation but the figure fell to RM300 million daily during MCO 2.0 after more economic sectors were allowed to operate.