KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — A total of RM92.9 million has been channelled by the government to 13,892 businesses in the form of grants and loans for subscription to digitalisation services as of April 15, 2022.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the allocation of RM700 million was aimed at encouraging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and mid-tier companies (MTCs) towards digitalising operations and trade channels.
He said as of the same period, through an allocation of RM600 million for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that are still affected by the spread of COVID-19, there were 753 applications for the Penjana Tourism Financing, and of this total 393 applications were approved with a total funding of RM79.1 million.
Meanwhile, for the DanaJamin Prihatin Guarantee Scheme (DPGS) which provides a guarantee scheme facility amounting to RM50 billion with a guarantee of up to 80 per cent for working capital purposes, the government has received a total of 92 applications from companies.
“As of April 8, 2022, the total guarantee that had been approved is RM2.07 billion for 61 companies,” he said in the 93rd Laporan Kewangan Rakyat released today.
As for the Wage Subsidy Programme (PSU), Tengku Zafrul said the government had channelled a total of RM20.683 billion to 357,703 employers to maintain the employment of 2,956,121 local workers in an effort to reduce the unemployment rate among Malaysian workers.
He added that the government through the Social Security Organisation (Socso) had also managed to place 51,037 workers as of March 31, 2022, through the Insentif Penggajian JaminKerja initiative with an allocation of RM2 billion for 2022.
Apart from that, the government has also provided contribution matching assistance of 80 per cent under Plan 2 (RM232.80) where only 20 per cent (RM46.60) has to be paid by the Self-Employed Person (OBS) target group which has been divided into eight categories.
The categories are SPS Asal, Gig, Jaja, Lain Upaya, Lancong, Seni, Tani and Usahawanita.
“As of April 17, 2022, a total of 36,610 OBS had contributed with a total collection of RM8.523 million,” he said.
In terms of the social service protection scheme, he said a total of 21,964 OBS had contributed under Contribution Plans 2 and 4 with a coverage period of 12 months with a collection value of RM5.696 million as of April 17.
Meanwhile in the report, Tengku Zafrul also encouraged the public to conduct cashless transactions at government service counters in line with the Cashless 2.0 campaign which runs until May 31, 2022.
The campaign contest offers RM10,000 cash to 100 winners.
For SMEs, they are encouraged to apply for the Low Carbon Transition Facility with an allocation of RM1 billion.
This is in line with the government’s goal of achieving the economic target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.
In a related matter, he said Malaysia is always committed to accelerating the country’s transition to green growth and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
He also shared some of the initiatives being implemented by the government through the compatriots approach to help navigate the country toward carbon neutrality at the 7th Conference of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action or CFMCA on April 19, 2022 in Washington, the United States.
The initiative includes Malaysia’s plan to launch a Voluntary Carbon Market or VCM through Bursa Malaysia as the country’s first step in venturing into carbon credit trading.
