PEMULIH is formidable, crucial to help economy recover - Experts

KUALA LUMPUR: The RM150 billion National People's Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH) is a formidable stimulus package to help the economy recover and assist the country to overcome the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

London Executive and Professional Development Centre executive director Professor Kanesh Rajah said all measures especially the large one (amount) to deal with this enormous problem the country is facing in relation to the surging COVID-19 infection must be welcomed.

"And the fiscal stimulus of this shape and size is an extraordinary step forward coming at this particular point in time.

"However, the timeline for the delivery of PEMULIH is crucial and it must happen within the next six months, along with the strategy that the government has laid out in order to return the country to normalcy," he said on Bernama TV's Midday Update programme here today.

The 30-minute discussion, which highlighted the country's PEMULIH, was hosted by Jessy Chahal.

Meanwhile, Putra Business School Associate Professor Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff said PEMULIH is comprehensive and holistic as every individual, household or business would have some form of initiative and assistance to be given to them under this plan.

"I would like to term this plan as a combo package because if you notice that every individual or group will have a multitude of combination of initiatives and assistance,

"For example when we look into the B40, on top of getting Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) under the previous PEMERKASA Plus aid package, they will also be getting Bantuan Khas COVID-19 (BKC) under PEMULIH," he said.

Ahmed Razman said that looking at these aid packages, all have the combination of initiatives and assistance announced by the government to make sure none of the deserving individuals or groups are left out.

"When we look at the PERMEKASA Plus package, we noticed that the Special Prihatin Grant (GKP) for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises is RM1,000, which will only last them until July, which is not enough to help them survive for the next few months.

"Hence, it is very important to extend such assistance and this what we can see under PEMULIH, where they are going to get some of this monetary assistance in September and November," he added.

PEMULIH was announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday to help the people, businesses and speed up the vaccination process under phase one of the National Recovery Plan to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The government will also provide a direct fiscal injection of RM10 billion.

-- BERNAMA