Its president Syed Hussain Syed Husman said that even though the extension was unavoidable, and that further extensions may be possible, the government must implement effective policies to support employers especially those in small, medium and micro-enterprises.
“The lockdown has severely impacted businesses and the situation on the ground is that many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises are at breaking point,” he said.
Aside from allocating additional funds for Pemerkasa Plus, he said Putrajaya should also expand the scope of the bank loan moratorium to include the M40 and all businesses.
MEF said the moratorium should be granted automatically and interest-free until the end of the year, and should cover all loans including overdrafts, mortgages, vehicle loans and credit cards.
Syed Hussain said that during this period, banks should waive all interest and bank charges including additional charges for rescheduling exercises or late interest payments.
“In this time of national emergency, we are of the view that the banks must step forward to help businesses and individual borrowers as this would go a long way towards ensuring a smooth recovery of the economy,” he added.
Meanwhile, MEF also noted the mental stress caused by the long lockdown, that could lead to higher incidences of domestic violence, divorces and suicides.
“The government must provide the necessary financial assistance as this is the main cause of mental stress.”
The government announced today that the two-week lockdown which came into effect on June 1, will now be extended for another two weeks from June 15 until June 28.
In a statement, senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decision follows the high daily Covid-19 case numbers, which is still exceeding the 5,000 mark.
Ismail said the “positive/negative” essential economic sector list and SOPs for manufacturing, businesses and industries remained the same.
Meanwhile, the Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Samenta) took the view that economic activities should be allowed to resume but with strict SOPs in place.
“This is especially as there is no visibility on how long this lockdown will last,” said its chairman William Ng.
He added that the government should also consider extending the wage subsidy to the end of the year, aside from imposing an automatic bank loan moratorium with waived interest for another six months and suspending all statutory contributions, including tax instalments, from May until December 2021.