By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Mar 27: As part of a more comprehensive economic stimulus package to deal with the loss of income and sales during the movement control order (MCO) period, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has unveiled a RM250 billion stimulus package to invigorate the economy.
“As I promised (earlier), today I announce a caring economic stimulus package which amounts to RM250 billion.
“Out of this amount, RM128 billion is allocated to provide welfare for the people and RM100 billion to support businesses such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and RM2 billion to strengthen the economy.
“This is on top of the RM20 billion which was announced in the earlier economic stimulus package.
“Therefore, either you are a fisherman, farmer, entrepreneur or pasar malam trader, every citizen will benefit and no one will be left behind,” he said during the press conference at Putrajaya today.
Muhyiddin added other groups such as singles, those earnings in the middle income of RM4,000 and below will also receive one off-allowances.
At the same time, he disclosed that civil servants and retired civil servants will also be given allowances.
Muhyiddin added the federal government will give a one-off RM500 to 1.5 million civil servants in the country in the salary scale of Gred56 and below as well as those hired on contracts.
He revealed that retired civil servants, students studying in institutions of higher learning will also benefit from the comprehensive economic stimulus package.
On another note, Muhyiddin said additional RM1 billion will be allocated to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to combat the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic which the help of medical experts from the private healthcare services.
He revealed that frontliners such as the Peoples’ Volunteer Corps (Rela), the police, armed forces personnel, immigration department personnel will be given extra RM200 each on top of the amount he announced earlier.
He noted that the additional allowance will benefit 169,000 workers in the country.
On Monday (March 23), Muhyiddin announced several initiatives to lessen the financial burden of the people in dealing with the loss of income and business during MCO due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
He announced that Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributors who are less than 55 years old are allowed to withdraw RM500 monthly and borrowers of the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) are allowed to defer their loan repayment for another three months to September 2020.
Subsequently on Wednesday (March 25), Muhyiddin announced that the period of the MCO be extended by two more weeks to April 14 from March 31.—DayakDaily
