KUALA LUMPUR: The 2020 Budget tabled at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday proposes various initiatives to lower the cost of living burden for Malaysians, including farmers, smallholders and fishermen as well as provide more opportunities for them to raise their living standards.
Themed “Driving Growth and Equitable Outcomes Towards Shared Prosperity”, the budget tabled by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is the second under the Pakatan Harapan administration.
The budget tabling was aired live on mass media as well as the Finance Ministry’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Lim said the Pakatan Harapan’s first budget tabled in 2018 focused on fiscal consolidation and rationalisation, institutional reform and people-friendly policies to fix the problems arising from the financial embezzlement and rampant abuse of power during the previous administration.
Budget 2020 shows the government’s commitment to restabilising its financial position and continuing the Vision 2020 objectives with a new growth trajectory based on the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 launched by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The strategies and initiatives proposed in the budget show the government is responsive to the wishes of the people, who want initiatives that enable them to reduce their cost of a living burden as well as provide them more opportunities to improve their living standards and assistance when disaster strikes.
These are embodied in new government guarantee schemes via Syarikat Jaminan Pembiayaan Perniagaan Bhd (SJPP) aimed at improving access to business financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and a new SJPP allocation of RM500 million for women entrepreneurs.
Lim said for Bumiputera SMEs, export-oriented SMEs and SMEs that invest in automation and digitalisation, the government guarantee will be raised from 70 per cent to 80 per cent, while the government will also lower the guarantee fee to only 0.75 per cent.
Besides, SME Bank will introduce two new funds to further support new Bumiputera entrepreneurs, with the government providing an annual interest subsidy of two per cent to lower the borrowing costs.
These funds include a RM200 million fund for women entrepreneurs with loans of up to RM1 million per SME, and a RM300 million fund to support Bumiputera SMEs with the potential to become regional champions, with priority given to producers of halal products and manufacturers with high local content.
Ethnic Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs are also not left out in the 2020 Budget.
“Unlike the previous administration, which handed out small business loans to their politically-linked co-operatives the Pakatan Harapan administration has separated politics and public funding, by providing RM100 million for Small Business Loans (Program Pembiayaan Usahawan Perusahaan Kecil Komuniti Cina) for the Chinese community via Bank Simpanan Nasional with more than 380 branches throughout the country, at an interest rate of 4%.”
For Indian entrepreneurs, the Government will provide RM20 million under Tekun Nasional’s Skim Pembangunan Usahawan Masyarakat India (SPUMI) which is expected to benefit 1,300 entrepreneurs at an interest rate of 4%,” he said.
Farmers were also not overlooked when the government via Developing Agriculture strategy has expressed concern over the impact of low commodity prices on people’s livelihoods, particularly smallholders.
In voicing out the government’s frustration and unhappiness with the anti-palm oil campaign launched by the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), Lim said the government intended to support the industry by launching the RM550 million collateral-free palm oil replanting loan fund for smallholders at an interest rate of 2% per annum.
“The loan comes with a tenure of 12 years including a 4-year moratorium on repayment. The replanting will be undertaken using the latest seedlings and also in compliance with Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standards to ensure better productivity and marketability,” he said.
The government according to the minister also recognised the hardships caused by low rubber prices and low yield during the rainy seasons and would be allocating RM200 million for Bantuan Musim Tengkujuh to eligible rubber smallholders under Risda and Lembaga Industri Getah Sabah (LIGS).
The government will provide RM100 million for Rubber Production Incentive in 2020 to enhance the income of smallholders faced with low rubber prices.
“The government will allocate RM810 million for the welfare of Lembaga Kemajuan Tanah Persekutuan (Felda) community,” said Lim.
Separately, the 2020 Budget according to him, would also provide RM738 million for Risda and Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra) to implement various income-generating programmes to benefit the more than 300,000 Risda and 100,000 Felcra smallholders.
In addition, the government has also increased the allocation to the Agriculture Ministry from RM4.4 billion in 2019 to RM4.9 billion in 2020, with a special focus towards enhancing incomes of farmers.
For 2020 he said, the government has proposed in increasing the fishermen allowance from RM200 to RM250 per month, with a total allocation of RM152 million for 2020.
In an effort to help farmers, fishermen and smallholders to diversify their income, the government said Lim is allocating a sum of RM150 million to facilitate crop integration to help supplement their income such as through chili, pineapple, coconut, watermelon and bamboo.
The government also intends to make the glutinous rice a signature product of Langkawi Island and provide farmers with a higher income.
To support this initiative, the government he said, would allocate RM30 million for the production of glutinous rice in Langkawi Island which is expected to benefit 1,200 farmers.
“To raise the padi yield, the government will increase the allocation for padi inputs from RM796 million in 2019 to RM855 million in 2020 under the Skim Baja Padi Kerajaan Persekutuan (SBPKP) and Skim Insentif Pengeluaran Padi (SIPP). To the Government will continue the subsidy for Padi Bukit and Padi Huma,” he said.
The government said the Finance Minister would also allocate RM43 million for the Agriculture Industry 4.0 to develop new crop varieties with higher productivity and quality.For youths, the government has devised strategies to increase job opportunities among Malaysian by launching various initiatives for them. – Bernama
