KOTA KINABALU: With Sabah under the grip of the conditional movement control order (CMCO), it’s time for another stimulus package, according to political economist Firdausi Suffian, who said the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah could show that it is a “caring government”.
Firdausi said a good number of businesses and people in Sabah would be hard hit by the latest movement restrictions in the state, compared with only several places in the peninsula.
He said the state government needed to emulate its federal counterpart which had rolled out a number of initiatives, including the latest Kita Prihatin stimulus package, which was lauded as “caring” by economists.
Firdausi acknowledged that Sabah could not afford to dish out aid such as the RM10 billion Kita Prihatin package; however, the state could still allocate substantial cash injections to help its people.
“The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah has just taken over the government so this is their chance to show they are different (from the previous administration) and that they care (for the people),” he told FMT.
Firdausi said he expected an extension to the CMCO, which is scheduled to expire on Oct 26, considering the high daily cases reported.
“Besides a loan moratorium for businesses and individuals, there should be special grants and interest-free loans for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), additional cash transfer for the B40 groups and another exemption on electricity and water bills depending on the usage, as well as assistance for the agriculture sector.
“These are among other assistance that can directly help people for now.”
So far, the current state government has provided RM70 million to assist the people, including RM20 million for food baskets to affected residents in 10 red zones statewide.
The previous Warisan-led government had in March rolled out a RM670 million aid package aimed at fighting the pandemic as well as to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 in the state.
This included residents in the state being exempted from paying their water bills for three months from April as well as a 30% discount on electricity bills within the same period.
Later in June, it announced another RM240 million package to help revive the state’s economy.
Increase public expenditure, says business leader
Sabah SME Association president Foo Ngee Kee urged the current state government to expedite the economic restart plan and increase public expenditure.
“In this way SMEs in Sabah will have a better chance of survival post lockdown,” he said, calling the “third Covid-19 wave” in the state as more serious than the earlier waves.
“In the past few months, our businesses have partially recovered. Just when we thought there was light at the end of the tunnel, Sabah was unexpectedly hit by the third wave.”
He said several districts and localities in the east coast were also under the conditional enhanced MCO (CEMCO) and EMCO and this would likely cause consumers to tighten their belts due to their loss of income.
“This will surely hurt the SMEs. This is only the beginning as I believe the situation will be worse in the coming weeks.”
As such, Foo called out to Bank Negara to direct banks to give SMEs in Sabah a further six-month moratorium extension on their loan repayment.
“With the moratorium extension, banks will not incur a loss as the interests are still accrued but businesses will have breathing space to find a solution and await the recovery. This is beneficial for both parties,” he said.
Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2020/10/17/covid-hit-sabah-needs-another-stimulus-package-says-economist/