THE state government has plans to appoint more banks to process small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) applications for Special Relief Fund (SRF) interest subsidy under the Sarawakku Sayang Assistance Package (BKSS) 2.0.
Assistant Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais said the state government was in the process of applying to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to involve more banks so that more applications could be received.
“There are people who do not have accounts with these seven banks. Therefore, we are applying for more banks other than the seven so that more applicants can gain access to the interest subsidy scheme,” he said.
He was responding to a question from Irene Mary Chang Oi Ling (DAP-Bukit Assek) in the DUN sitting today.
He said that 1,889 applications for SRF under BKSS 2.0 for interest subsidy had been received by the seven participating banks, namely Maybank, Hong Leong Bank, CIMB Bank, Public Bank, SME Bank, RHB Bank, and Bank Muamalat.
“Out of these, 1,879 have been successful and ten have been rejected,” he said. Of the ten unsuccessful applications, seven were from Kuching and one each from Bintulu, Miri, and Sibu.
He explained that among the reasons for rejected applications were that they did not fall into the SME definition, they were not Sarawakian, or they did not have more than 51 percent Sarawak equity.
However, Naroden said the rejected applications may still be considered and thus urged them to appeal.
He also said applicants could check the status of their application online via the respective banks’ online facilities.
He said the state government had approved RM80.7 million for interest subsidy over period of three and a half years, of which RM44.6 million had been implemented for the 1,879 applications for SRF under BKSS 2.0 for interest subsidy.
