PUTRAJAYA JUNE 28:The Perikatan Nasional (PN) government today announced the implementation of the People’s Protective Package and Economic Recovery or PEMULIH worth RM150 billion.
Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said, the sum allocated for PEMULIH includes direct fiscal injection worth RM10 billion aimed at helping the people and focused on three aspects namely “To continue the Rakyat Prihatin Agenda, Supporting businesses and To escalate vaccination”.
Muhyiddin said, to continue the Rakyat Prihatin Agenda the government is channelling direct Cash Assistance worth RM10 billion. Through the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) the government agreed to give an additional payment of RM500 in July and the payment will be made in stages beginning 29th June.
Meanwhile the third phase of BPR with assistance rate between RM100 to RM1, 400 will be paid in September. The appeal cases of BPR will also be paid in September 2021. The value of BPR until the end of the year will be RM4.9 billion.
Muhyiddin added, for the Lost in Income Assistance, in October RM500 will be channelled to those who have lost their incomes based on the Employment Provident Fund (EPF) or SOCSO in the year 2021. The assistance is estimated to benefit 1 million members and will involve financial implication of RM500 million.
The government realises that in the first and second phase of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) most business premises will not be in full operation. Due to this situation the government will introduce several approaches amongst others lessening the employers’ liabilities, supporting the digitalisation efforts, providing financial facility aids, tax incentives, providing loan facility and continue salary incentives.
“The implementation of Geran Khas Prihatin (GKP) has successfully supports the continuity of businesses or business survival amongst small traders especially those who have not been allowed to operate.
“On the whole, the government has allocated RM5.1 billion through the GKP initiative. Today, under Additional PEMERKASA the qualified recipient had received GKP 3.0 payment of RM1,000 last two weeks and will receive RM500 in mid-July,” said Muhyiddin in a special deliberation on PEMULIH via TV1 here today.
Since the Salary Subsidy Programme or PSU was introduced, the government has spent RM15 billion to help employers to pay 2.7 million workers. Due to the positive response on this programme, the government agreed to implement PSU 4.0 with the allocation of RM3.8 billion that will benefit 2.5 million workers.
“Before this the PSU implementation was conditional with workers salary below RM4, 000 and under PSU 4.0 there is no condition and employers can apply for workers with salary more than RM4, 000 per month,” Muhyiddin said.
In another development the Prime Minister said, in order to lessen the financial burden of the people, EPF members/contributors that are affected due to the imposition of Movement Control Order (MCO) are allowed to withdraw money when EPF introduces the i-Citra.
Through i-Citra 12.6 million EPF members can withdraw up to RM5, 000 with the payment rate of RM1,000 per month for five months depending on the members’ savings.
The third focus is the government’s effort to speed up the vaccination programme. To date the government has opened 341Vaccination Centres (PPV) nationwide and it includes 320 public PPV, 13 Mega PPV and 8 PPV IPT.
To increase the daily vaccination rate, the government has agreed to open 29 new PPV, upgrade the existing PPV, implement drive-through PPV, mobile PPV and Home to-Home Outreach with the provision of RM200 million.
The government has also agreed to increase RM200 to RM600 special allowance to 14,000 health front liners involved in the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) for six months starting July 2021. The two initiatives that had involved additional provision had incurred RM200 million.
Besides that a token payment of RM50 to RM100 per day will be given to health volunteers working more than 12 hours per day starting June 2021. Tokens will also be paid to those working on the ground besides PPV such as the quarantine centres.
The Prime Minister said, he has requested the PPV to operate seven days per week to speed up the vaccination process among members of the public.-Malaysia World News
