By Jaythaleela K
MIRI, Oct 7: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) applauds Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s announcement of RM10,000 under Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) 7.0 for active businesses in Sarawak registered with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) as of December 31, 2020.
Referring to the announcement made on August 4 this year, SUPP secretary-general Datuk Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew said the special one-off financial assistance is aimed at helping active businesses to cover their operational cost, including rent and employee wages especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“From the ground feedback, there was much confusion and disappointment among the business communities that the special one-off financial assistance is only for the SMEs. However, it appears from the Chief Minister’s announcement that the special one-off financial assistance should not only be exclusively for the SMEs,” he said today in a statement.
“We believe our Chief Minister’s intention is actually to help active businesses in Sarawak and that should then include the microenterprises.”
The Assistant Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture added, SUPP has reflected this to the Economic Planning Unit and appealed to chief minister to include microenterprises for the special one-off financial assistance of RM10,000.
According to SME Corporation Malaysia, micro enterprises have sales turnover of less than RM300,000 per year or less than five full-time employees, Ting pointed out.
“”We firmly believe that we need to support the microenterprises because they also play a critical and important role in our whole State’s economy and indeed this group has been greatly impacted by the pandemic resulting in a huge drop of revenue and substantial losses.
“We fervently hope that our chief minister will favourably consider including the micro enterprises for this special one-off financial assistance of RM10,000,” he added. — DayakDaily
