KUALA LUMPUR JULY 29: Four million members of the Employment Provident Fund (EPF) are expected to receive their first payment of i-Citra that will be credited to their bank account on Tuesday 3rd August 2021.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said, for the postponement of six months loan moratorium, the application has been opened in early July 2021.
“I would like to suggest for those who have problem in getting the loan moratorium to contact BNM-TELELINK or get the advice from the Counselling Agency and AKPK Credit Management to manage their cash flow.
“EPF will be opening i-Citra hotline to enable the members to get any kind of clarification,” Tengku Zafrul said in his presentation “Economic Assistance Package” at the Dewan Rakyat special sitting held since 26th July 2021 (Monday).
Tengku Zafrul added, besides the bank loan moratorium, the insurance policy holder and takaful are also qualified to receive benefits from the premium insurance payment postponement and Takaful contribution that is extended until 31st December 2021.
“Apart from that the government is also implementing the targeted education loan postponement involving JPA, MARA, PTPK and PTPTN,” he added.
On the current economic performance, Tengku Zafrul said, the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 recently, Malaysia has lost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) around RM1.1 billion per day compared to RM2.4 billion per day during the full MCO in March 2020.
Tengku Zafrul added, the GDP for 2021is expected to record a lower growth compared to the estimation before that is between 6 to 7.5 per cent. The official estimation will be announced together with the second quarter of GDP where the impact of MCO and the implementation of NRP on the economy for the first half of this year will be seen in full.
“In order to have a transparent expenditure throughout the pandemic crisis, COVID-19 Provident Fund or KWC-19 was formed under the Act 830 and had been approved by the Parliament last year. The provision of KWC-19 funded by the government loan had been used for the assistance package expenditures and the additional expenditures to improve the public health sectors and the implementation of PICK,” Tengtku Zafrul said.
The Finance Minister added, the people’s welfare programme such as the pay subsidies, GKP, BPN, BPR, and others are being channelled through KWC-19. The government had spent RM55 billion until 30th June 2021 while RM38 billion had been spent last year.
He added, until the end of June 2021, the level of statutory debts had reached 56.8 per cent but it is still below the permitted statutory limit of 60 per cent of GDP.
“With the limited fiscal space, the government has no choice but to optimise the allocation sources via expenditure rationalisation, the increase in productivity from the government’s ecosystem including the utilisation of the KWAN fund and prepared to increase the ceiling limit of KWC-19.
“At the same time, the government is ready to loosen the debts’ limit procedures to support the Economic Recovery Plan based on the national debts’ affordability. As such the government will move a motion in this Hall (Dewan Rakyat) the request for amendment in the coming term,” he said.-Malaysia World News
