Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said some businesses were just starting to record sales after a long lull.

However, with another full lockdown, bosses may not have cash to pay salaries while operations are shut.

“There could be more people out of jobs,” he added.

He said their main worry was that a full lockdown would see businesses losing RM2.4 billion daily as experienced during the first strict MCO from March to May 2020.

“With the partial lockdown, we are losing (money) but it is about RM300 million a day, according to finance ministry’s figures,” he told FMT.

The government announced today that it will deliberate tomorrow morning on whether a stricter lockdown should be imposed.

Shamsuddin said a full lockdown last year saw 32,000 companies shutting down operations permanently. Another lockdown will hit struggling companies even harder.

“Companies are already crying and may close down operations if another full lockdown is imposed.

“It may be difficult for some of us to get back to normal,” he said, adding that the severity of their financial standing will also depend on the length of the lockdown.

Due to that, he said the government needs to hand out incentives and subsidies for the private sector to pull through with wage subsidies and automatic moratoriums for businesses and individuals.

“It is about lives and livelihoods, the government needs to look at all angles,” he said.