On May 31, 2021, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made an announcement about an aid package that would be rolled out in light of MCO 3.0.
PEMERKASA + has a value of 40 billion euros, with 5 billion euros in direct tax injection. It has three main objectives:
- Increase the capacity of the public health system
- Continue the previous social security programs under Worried people agenda
- Help companies withstand the tightest lockout
For self-employed workers, these are the specific initiatives that would benefit you.
1. Assistance concerned about people
The government allocates RMS 2.1 billion Assistance concerned about people with the distribution of funds from the end of June as such:
- An additional RM500 for households with a monthly income of up to RM 2,500
- An additional RM300 for households with a monthly income of between 2,501 and 5,000 RM
- An additional RM100 for singles
2. Wage subsidy program
There will be a one-month salary subsidy program under PERKESO worth RMS 1.5 billion. It will benefit 2.5 million eligible employees and 200,000 employers. Each employer is limited to 500 employees per application.
3. Occasional aid for tourists and travel
RM 68 million will be used to provide one-off grants of RM500 for employees and the self-employed in the tourism and travel sector:
- 17,000 tourist guides
- 40,000 taxi drivers
- 11,000 school bus drivers
- 4,000 tourist buses
- 62,000 car rental and electronic reception drivers
4. Sanction appeals and adjournments
The Board of Finance will review the sanction appeals and postpone the payment of the sanctions until 2022. At the same time, it will reschedule the payment of tax arrears for the affected taxpayers and businesses.
5. An automatic moratorium on loans
Those who are part of the B40 and have suffered loss of income will be eligible for a 3-month automatic loan moratorium. This also applies to SMEs that do not operate during closure.
Eligible parties can choose to accept the moratorium or pay the loan installments at a reduced rate of 50% for 6 months. Up to about 5 million borrowers worth RM 30 million would benefit from this initiative.
- You can learn more about economic stimulus packages here.
Featured Image Credit: Muhyiddin Yassin