KUALA LUMPUR:The government has approved 4,727 small and medium enterprise (SME) applications valued at RM996.9 million to propel businesses under the PENJANA SME Financing as at Nov 6, 2020.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said for the PENJANA Tourism Financing, the government had received 461 SME applications.

This financing package offers SMEs a 3.5 per cent financing rate to help them in terms of capital and capital expenditure for the financing the period of up to seven years.

"Out of the total applications, 195 applications valued at RM39.8 million had been approved," he said.

Tengku Zafrul said this in the 29th Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (LAKSANA) report on the implementation of the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN), National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA) and Kita Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package (KITA PRIHATIN) today.

On the TEKUN Business Recovery Scheme (TBRS), he said the government had channelled RM82.61 million, benefitting 12,403 micro SMEs as at Nov 6, 2020.

It has also directed RM184.6 million to 5,181 micro SMEs in the retail and services sectors under the PENJANA Micro Credit Financing under Bank Simpanan Nasional.

Meanwhile, to stimulate the economy, support for the agriculture and food industry was provided through financing as well as revolving capital for farmers, ranchers and fishermen with an allocation of RM400 million, out of which RM350 million has been allocated under the Agrobank Micro Credit Financing.

As at Nov 6, 2020, RM41.4 million had been channelled to 4,677 agricultural micro SMEs uder this financing package.

On ensuring the survival of the tourism and hospitality sector, service tax exemption for hotels have been granted for accommodation premise operators between Sept 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.

As at Nov 6, 2020, the value of the tax exemption that had been utilised by the operators of the accommodation premises reached RM727.4 million.

The value of export duty exemption successfully utilised by the national industry amounted to RM301.1 million as of the same date. The government has given up to 100 per cent export duty exemption the commodity sector to help smallholders ease selling of their produce to factories.

Meanwhile, on empowering the people, Tengku Zafrul noted that the PeKa B40 Health Care Scheme, for the B40 income group to meet health needs such as the early detection for non-communicable diseases, the government received 146,433 applications worth RM12.76 million between July 1 and Nov 6, 2020.

For the Wage Subsidy Programme (PSU), RM12.25 billion of wage subsidy had been approved that benefitted over 322,177 employers as well as over 2.64 million employees.

"As a reminder, employers can still apply for PSU 2.0 under the KITA PRIHATIN Package which is open for application until Dec 31, 2020, said Tengku Zafrul.

He also noted that for the Hiring Incentive Programme and Training Assistance, 74,141 employees (up from 70,113 last week) had managed to secure jobs through this programme as at Nov 6, 2020.

This number included 59,539 workers under the age of 40; 9,370 people for the age group of 40 and 60; as well as 336 people with disabilities and 4,896 apprentices.

As for the Reskilling and Upskilling Programme, 115,876 individuals had been approved (an increase from 106,047 individuals last week) to participate in the programmes provided.

-- BERNAMA