Jomo said the government’s Covid-19 measures were counterproductive as there were already over 80 different types of subsidies and grants before the virus hit the country.
Rather than coming up with measures such as the Kita Prihatin stimulus package, he said, the government should have utilised the existing MyKad system instead.
“You have indirect taxation which affects everybody, then you have direct subsidy payments which are ultimately a form of political patronage,” he said at an Australian National University (ANU) Malaysia Institute webinar today.
“There are many machineries involved in trying to determine who is eligible (to receive the subsidies), when in fact we already have very effective means of making transfers.”
Jomo said price subsidies would have made for a better relief measure than cash handouts, as they would encourage more people to spend and contribute to the nation’s economy.
He also said the current conditional movement control order and the work from home order placed on those in the Klang Valley would further prevent businesses from recovering.
“Many in the Klang Valley, which accounts for two-fifths of the nation’s economy, are going to be hit so hard I’m not sure if many of them are going to survive,” he said.
“We are talking about an apocalyptic type of impact on this country due to the measures taken to handle the crisis, unless we develop a combination of social protection reforms and some appropriate relief measures.”
Muhammed Abdul Khalid, the economic adviser to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said more focus must be put on B40 earners and vulnerable groups.
Citing a survey conducted earlier in the year, he said single mothers were one of the groups that had financially suffered the most as a result of the pandemic.
“Before the crisis, the unemployment rate among single mothers was one in 10. During the crisis, one in three is not working, 80% are mentally stressed and only 2% said they are positive about the future.”
He said their welfare aid should be improved as they were currently only living off a total assistance of RM1,600 over a six-month period.