KUCHING: The Sarawak Chamber of Bumiputera Entrepreneurs (DUBS) has welcomed the various initiatives provided in the government’s National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) to boost the economy post Covid-19.
“This recovery plan has been much anticipated since businesses will need a few months before they can reach their pre conditional movement control order (CMCO) operation level,” DUBS president Datuk Abang Helmi Ikhwan said on Saturday.
He added that during this time, businesses would not be fully operational due to a time lag for demand to pick up. For example, restaurants and hotels needed time for the public to re-establish confidence in eating and venturing outside.
“Hotels will fare worse because of flight constraints preventing tourists from coming. This is on top of tourists themselves needing time to regain confidence to travel. Similar issues are happening in other industries,” he said.
Thus, he said that the extension of the wage subsidy programme at RM600 per employee per month for three months was very appropriate to assist such businesses by reducing wage commitments during the period.
He also said that the grant allocations and income tax incentives pertaining to kindergartens and childcare centres were very much welcome by these operators, adding that many of DUBS’ members were in this business sector as well.
“This should improve their cashflow as they are among the worst-affected by the movement control order (MCO),” he said.
He commended the cashflow assistance provided by SME Bank for G2 and G3 contractors of minor government projects.
Abang Helmi said that DUBS was unhappy that the new allocation for special relief fund had was not given to Bumiputera small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the chamber had requested earlier.
“However, we note that there is allocation for SMEs with the threshold of RM500,000 per SME applicant,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak secretary Andrew Lo was of the view that the three-month wage subsidy extension programme of RM600 per month for each employee was inadequate.
“The real property gains tax (RPGT) spill over effect will not be felt in the short term in terms of boosting the economy and creating jobs,” he said, referring to the RPGT exemption for Malaysians for the disposal of up to three properties between June 1 this year and December 31 next year.
He also noted that there had been no initiative announced with regard to reducing foreign workers.
