PETALING JAYA: Banks have benefited by extending loan repayment periods under the moratorium and thus should extend it automatically for the B40 and M40 groups, says DAP.
Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said this should continue until March next year, adding that it would cost RM6.4 billion.
“This will help eight million Malaysian individuals and companies.
“In contrast, the targeted bank loan moratorium extension and bank assistance introduced after Sept 30 has assisted only 645,000 borrowers, which is only 8% of the original number of borrowers,” he said in a statement today.
The former finance minister has been persistently insisting on the loan moratorium to be extended to help those affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
He said the targeted bank loan assistance had benefited only financial institutions as it required borrowers to to pay even higher interest payments.
“The fact is that the banking industry recorded RM32 billion in profit in 2019 and despite the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, it continues to record profits, with no banks incurring losses.”
The former finance minister said the anticipated economic recovery from improvements in global economic growth and trade had stalled in Malaysia and run out of steam.
Guan Eng added there was a sharp decline in Malaysia’s gross fixed capital formation (investments) by 11.6% in the third quarter this year.
“This sharp decline is a setback for economic confidence in future growth and damages Malaysia’s competitiveness since other countries in Asia are not experiencing the same phenomenon,” he said.
Saying that the tourism industry is on “life support”, the former finance minister said RM10 billion in financial grants should be given to provide a lifeline to this sector.
“Malaysia received RM54 billion less in tourism revenue for the first nine months compared to the same period last year. The tourism industry is not the only one on ‘life support’ as other industries are also suffering,” he said.
RM45 billion stimulus package
In view of this, Lim said an additional RM45 billion for the 2021 budget was needed to create new sources of economic growth and slow down retrenchments, job losses and business closures.
He said the stimulus package should also focus on:
- Immediate implementation of the increase in monthly welfare aid from RM200-300 to RM1,000, including for the unemployed, expected to hit the one million figure;
- Work-hiring incentives over a period of two years, under Malaysia@Work of RM500 a month to employees and RM300 per month to employers to encourage them to hire local workers;
- Expanding this scheme to cover 600,000 Malaysian workers and their employers. This would also help the more than 500,000 youths who are unemployed; and,
- Special funds to spend on digitalising education, including buying laptops to provide online learning for students not able to attend schools.
“Malaysian education is in crisis this year because students attended only four months of schooling. The loss of human resource training is immeasurable.
“Malaysian students should be given the option of online learning,” he added.