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Image credit: SME Malaysia

GEORGE TOWN (Sept 23): The Small and Medium Enterprise Association Malaysia (Samenta) welcomes the Federal Government’s initiative of introducing the Targeted Wage Subsidy Programme to assist employers and employees economically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Samenta president, Koay Chiew Guan told Bernama that the wage subsidy programme would strongly aid the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to mitigate the economic impact from the pandemic.

“It is a good move from the Federal Government as the wage subsidy programme would definitely help boost the recovery of SMEs nationwide,” he said.

He also urged the SMEs to apply for the wage subsidy when the application is open from Oct 1 to Dec 31 this year.

Earlier today, the Government announced several initiatives and additional assistance under the RM10 billion PRIHATIN Supplementary Initiative Package (Kita Prihatin) in order to boost economic recovery.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that one of the several initiatives was the Targeted Wage Subsidy Programme, estimated to involve RM2.4 billion and expected to benefit 1.3 million workers

He said the wage subsidy would be given to employers still affected by the pandemic, namely companies facing lower revenues by at least 30% compared to last year, since the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) came into force.

The wage subsidy will be given for up to three months at a rate of RM600 per month for each employee, with a maximum of 200 employees per company.

Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/sme-association-welcomes-federal-govts-wage-subsidy-programme