“A total of 322,177 employers and 2.64 million workers have received benefits,” he said in the 53rd Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (Laksana) report released today.

He said the government had also provided an allocation of RM1 billion to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro SMEs that were still affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the tourism sector funding of the Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana), there were 653 applications recorded as at May 7 and out of the total, 325 applications were approved with a total funding of RM64.6 million.

“The ministry understands that the still challenging pandemic situation is limiting traders from applying to this fund.

“However, the government hopes that when the situation recovers, tourism industry players will have existing funds to use to expand their businesses to take advantage of the wave of regional economic recovery,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul said that to support the tourism sector until June 30, the value of tax exemption utilised by operators of accommodation premises had reached RM2.333 billion as at May 7, an increase of RM962.7 million compared with RM1.37 billion recorded on Jan 29.

Among other initiatives to support the tourism sector are individual income tax relief of up to RM1,000 on travel expenses as well as full tourism tax exemption, he added.

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