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PETALING JAYA: The government’s multibillion-ringgit financial assistance packages are not reaching many of the intended sectors due to the strict requirements by banks, a coalition of businesses claims.
It claims that among the sectors affected are tourism, retail, events and SMEs in general.
According to the 42nd report of the Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit between National Agencies on the Special Relief Facility (SRF) under the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana), RM1.26 billion has been distributed to 6,731 SMEs.
However, the federation of 262 business associations and over 900,000 businesses said the number just represented 3.2% of the total existing SMEs in the country.
“That is after one year of the government rolling out the stimulus packages. The numbers do not make sense. How can only 3% of the SMEs be assisted when the economic situation and the real situation on the ground is telling us something else?” said Business Survival Group pro tem president Abdul Malik Abdullah at a press conference here today.
Malik questioned how could there be such a big disconnect between the initiatives announced by the government and the implementation by the banking system.
Speaking at the same press conference, another member of the coalition, Malaysian Budget Hotel Association president Emmy Suraya Hussein said many hotels in dire states were unable to get access to the SRF and the Penjana tourism financing scheme.
“Many hotels applied for the SRF to avoid being shutdown but were rejected by banks with the reason that our sector is too risky.
“For the Penjana scheme, the application requirements and paperwork are too strict. I know the government wants to help the affected sectors but they have to simplify the application,” she added.
She said banks should not be too rigid at times when businesses could barely survive any longer.
Further, the business group called for the government to provide more targeted assistance for the post-pandemic recovery phase.
“We are asking the government to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to provide economic relief post-Covid-19 pandemic,” the group’s adviser A T Kumarajah said.
Kumarajah said the SPV should run as a public-private partnership with the government to regulate and set policies.
Further, he added that the SPV should be implemented under a single window to ease the application process for businesses.
“All ministries and agencies related to entrepreneurship should be placed under this single window. Anything to do with business across all industries should go through this window,” he said.
Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/03/08/billion-ringgit-stimulus-package-not-reaching-the-needy-says-group/