KUCHING, Mar 25: Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general J. Solomon said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)’s measures were thus far the single most important step in helping people and businesses survive the highly destructive effects of Covid-19.
“MTUC welcomes the move by BNM to direct financial institutions to give a six-month reprieve to their customers from paying their loans instalments, including mortgages and hire-purchase to mitigate the economic meltdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The BNM’s directive has brought huge relief, especially to individuals – many who are low salaried workers – and SME companies which are suffering due to the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the global economy, public health as well as the livelihood of people,” he said in a press release today.
Solomon thus called on banks to quickly come out with clear guidelines for customers on how they will implement the central bank’s directive.
“As BNM said, the banks must make it clear to individuals and SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) borrowers on how the suspended loan or financing repayments or payments will be treated during the moratorium period,” he added.
MTUC also strongly urged BNM to ensure that individual customers and businesses did not incur any extra interests or payment of any kind in taking up the six months’ automatic moratorium on loan payments.
“Only by ensuring there are no hidden costs, will the moratorium be meaningful and have its desired impact.
“We commend the banks for agreeing to work with BNM to provide the half year moratorium to help the public and businesses deal with their cash flow,” he said.
In this regard, Solomon also urged banks to provide some form of flexibility to credit card holders affected by fallout from Covid-19 and face difficulty in settling their monthly dues, as most transactions will be now done through credit card and online in view of the MCO (Movement Control Order).
“In addition, the interest on the credit card is the highest right now as it could go up to 18 per cent per year,” he said.
He also urged banks to also consider abolishing late payment penalties and reducing monthly interest charges for one year to further ease the household expenses of Malaysians.
MTUC also suggested that BNM advise banks to suspend their Collection Department immediately as Malaysians were already struggling mentally to manage the pandemic crisis mentally and with loss of overtime and commissions, it was in human to further remind them to pay up on their installments.
“This is not the time to be concerned about rise in NPL but rather to prevent the rise in Covid-19 victims and deaths,” he added.
MTUC hopes banks continue to display goodwill, compassion and empathy by ever willing to respond to further help the rakyat as and when the need arises. —DayakDaily
