Kapitan Tan Yit Sheng
KUCHING (June 13): Kapitan Tan Yit Sheng has appealed to the Sarawak government to provide a three-month cash aid to coffeeshop owners during the current Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Kuching Coffeeshop and Restaurant Owners Association committee member said coffeeshop owners were among the worst hit sectors amid this pandemic, with many of them seeing a drastic reduction in business volume.
“Most coffeeshop owners have recorded a drastic reduction of nearly 80 per cent in their businesses even before the MCO was enforced on May 29.
“Lest people might forget, dine-in was already disallowed for three weeks before May 29. Imagine how much we have suffered since early last month and there is no cash aid for us under the Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) packages,” he said when contacted by The Borneo Post today.
He was asked how the coffeeshop operators had been coping during this MCO, which has been extended for another two weeks until June 28.
Tan thus suggested that the Sarawak government provide a RM3,000 cash aid to coffeeshop owners for three months to help them with cash flow.
He lamented that coffeeshop owners, who had recorded a drastic reduction in income, had not been given any cash aid and dine-in continued being prohibited.
“No doubt that take-aways are permitted but most take-aways involve only food and not beverages.”
Tan observed that some other Covid-19 clusters involving the workplace, factory and community had emerged after dine-in was disallowed.
He said it might be a good move to disallow dine-in but did not seem to be effective in breaking the chain of infections given the emergence of other clusters.
“This is because people having take-aways gather at their respective offices and factories where they work to have meals during when they also chat,” he added.
As such, he opined that disallowed dine-in had led to the emergence of other clusters, but coffeeshop owners had to continue to suffer.
Tan therefore hoped that the Sarawak government could offer the proposed cash aid to coffeeshop owners in helping them wade through the water.