KUALA LUMPUR: Bank loan borrowers will have to continue paying their instalments starting October following the moratorium benefits that will end in September 2020.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said, the moratorium will not be extended as under the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), businesses are back in operations and the bank customers are able to service their loans.
He said the Ministry of Finance is in the process of discussing with the banks to implement the targeted actions in the moratorium issue that is going to end in September.
“The bank customers could also refer to the counselling agencies and the bank for the restructuring of loan payments,” Tengku Zafrul said in his reply to Pontian MP, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan who wants to know whether the initiatives including PRIHATIN and PENJANA programmes will be extended and new initiatives will be introduced.
Tengku Zafrul was answering to Ahmad Maslan in the question to ministers at the second meeting, the third term of the 14th Parliamentary session here today.
In March this year, the government had announced the implementation of moratorium including payment of loans, restructuring of credit cards and corporate loans for a period of six months until September 30 to help businesses and individuals who had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PRIHATIN package until July 17, includes RM11.14 billion as one-off payment under the National PRIHATIN Aids (BPN) has benefitted 10.4 million recipients in the B40 and B40 categories.
For the Pay Subsidy and Retention of Workers Programme, the payment up to date is RM7.6 billion and had saved 2.75 million jobs.
Tengku Zafrul also mentioned that the value of moratorium given to the people is estimated at RM59 billion.
The Minister of Finance also stressed that RM9.23 billion under the SME Easy Loan Fund has been approved by the local banks and 20,800 SMEs have agreed to take the loans.
He added, RM1.64 billion PRIHATIN Special Grant (GKP) has been paid and benefitted 545,000 Micro SMEs. However, RM370.8 million has been approved under the BSN Micro Credit Scheme that has benefitted 11,200 SMEs while RM194.6 million has been approved under TEKUN programme and benefitted 25,500 SMEs. –Malaysia World News.
