Jobs were saved through a wage subsidy programme and an employee retention programme, while more than 800,000 businesses, including micro businesses and SMEs benefited from the stimulus packages he said in a live telecast today.

The government had also disbursed a total of RM11 billion in cash aid to 10.4 million recipients of Bantuan Prihatin Nasional.

In addition, RM34 million was disbursed to 1.4 million e-hailing drivers, each receiving a one-off RM500 cash allowance, and RM28.8 million to 477,000 taxi drivers, tour guides and bus drivers, who each received RM600.

He said 7.7 million consumers benefited from a 50% discount on their electricity bills, at a total cost of RM312.32 million, while 1.4 million other users benefited from a 15 % discount, at a cost of RM185.75 million.

A moratorium on loan replayments had helped about 65% of households.

“In terms of assistance for entrepreneurs, 545,000 micro entrepreneurs have received a special grant, totalling RM1.6 billion; and 7,000 applicants of the BSN micro credit scheme have received a total of RM247 million,” he said.

Additionally, 23,000 recipients have benefited from the National Entrepreneur Group Economic Fund’s (Tekun Nasional) micro credit scheme, totalling RM177 million.

Muhyiddin said the government had distributed RM7.4 billion in wage subsidies to 834,000 employers, to be channelled to 6.7 million employees nationwide.

He warned that a sudden increase in Covid-19 cases would result in closures of economic sectors and cause around RM2 billion in business losses per day, affecting the livelihood of millions of employees.

He said the stimulus packages contributed more than 3% to the country’s gross domestic product this year.

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