Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the implementation of MCO 3.0 was based on SOPs adopted during MCO 2.0 earlier this year, which allowed economic activities to continue.
However, he stressed that social activities were still prohibited in view of current developments.
“Based on experience from previous MCOs and the latest data, the government has found the following: first, shutting down the economy will be detrimental to groups who are vulnerable and easily hit (by Covid-19).
“Second, if sectors such as manufacturing are not operating, it will have a lasting and continual impact on key sectors of the economy,” he told a press conference on the implementation of MCO 3.0 here today.
Tengku Zafrul said MCO 1.0 had caused losses amounting to RM2.4 billion a day to the economy with the unemployment rate soaring to 5.3% or 826,000 employees being laid off in May 2020.
“This was the highest unemployment rate since the commodities crisis in the 1980s. If MCO 1.0 is reimplemented, it is estimated that more than one million Malaysians will lose their jobs.
“What is more worrying is that the unemployment rate is uneven and more focused on the self-employed, youths, women and the low-skilled,” he said.
Besides the unemployment risk, he said 2.8 million people comprising the self-employed, micro-SMEs and small entrepreneurs will be the most affected by the reduction in income.
In comparison to MCO 1.0, Tengku Zafrul said the unemployment rate was at 4.7% or affected 753,000 individuals in March when MCO 2.0 was enforced.
“It should be noted that we are still far from the unemployment rate of 3.7% before the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country,” he added.
Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said the automatic loan moratorium would not be implemented during MCO 3.0.
“During MCO 2.0, it was also not given as the economy was still open,” he said, adding that affected groups and companies could however receive help from banks, just like during MCO 2.0.
Bank Negara Malaysia said yesterday the comprehensive moratorium would not be automatically implemented again despite the nationwide MCO.
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