Finance Minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said many measures under the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN) will be implemented concurrently with those under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA).

He said, there were various PRIHATIN measures that will run until June and some till September.

“As announced by the Prime Minister last week, (measures) under PRIHATIN package have saved more than 2.4 million jobs while over 11 million people received assistance to ease their cash flow burden, and over 300,000 companies supported...these efforts will continue,” he said when presenting the PRIHATIN-LAKSANA's eighth progress report on his Facebook page today.

Elaborating further, Tengku Zafrul said, PENJANA is a short-term economic recovery plan that will be implemented for the period from June to December 2020.

To empower the people, the focus is on employment and towards this end, the government has allocated almost RM9 billion to benefit three million workers.

“For businesses, there are various initiatives to assist large companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as micro enterprises,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said that there were several initiatives under PRIHATIN that will now be subsumed under PENJANA for more effective implementation to benefit the target groups, namely the SOCSO Employment Retention Programme (ERP) and the consolidation of facilities and financial assistance for businesses including SMEs.

During the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) which ends today, the government found that the ERP applications had declined, from 15,000 per week in April to about 300 applications a week in early June.

“This decline is in line with the gradual opening of the economy in early May, which recently saw over 12.7 million or 83.5 per cent of workers begin to return to work (according to the latest figures from the Department of Statistics),” said Tengku Zafrul.

Hence, the government has decided to consolidate the ERP into the Wage Subsidy programme which has now been expanded under PENJANA.

Effective June 15, 2020 onwards, the Wage Subsidy programme will allow employers to apply for wage subsidy for their workers who have been put on unpaid leave.

“Wage subsidies are also aimed at helping workers in tourism and other sectors prohibited from operating during the Recovery MCO.

"As this is provided for those who are working and those put on unpaid leave, the Wage Subsidy programme, which has been extended for a further three months, is expected to help employers retain more workers and save jobs," he added.

For the consolidation programme, financing of RM7 billion to help SMEs was provided through Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and financial institutions under PRIHATIN.

These include the Special Relief Facility (SRF), Agrofood Facility and Automation and Digitalisation Fund, as well as micro-credit schemes.

Meanwhile, under PENJANA, the government has allocated RM10.95 billion including financing initiatives for the tourism sector, SMEs, Bumiputera traders, small contractors, creative industries, and micro businesses.

“Programmes such as the SRF and financing SMEs under PENJANA will be channelled through BNM while micro-credit schemes will be channelled via Bank Simpanan Nasional and TEKUN Nasional,” he said.

The Inter-Agencies Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination unit (LAKSANA) under the Ministry of Finance will continue to monitor the implementation of measures and initiatives under PRIHATIN and PENJANA to ensure that they move in tandem for the benefit of the people.

In total, both the PRIHATIN and PENJANA packages are worth RM295 billion, with RM45 billion in the form of direct fiscal injection. - BERNAMA