KUCHING: Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has given the thumbs-up to the Pemerkasa Plus stimulus package incentives for entrepreneurs.
He said his ministry fully supported the incentives which included grants and funding amounting to RM11.5 billion that would greatly benefit entrepreneurs.
“This initiative announced is the right step to help entrepreneurs including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) maintain business resilience during the challenging period, especially the movement control order (MCO) period which come into force today (June 1),” he said.
He said the MSMEs had contributed significantly to the socio-economic development of the country, where it created jobs for 7.3 million people.
“My ministry is committed to ensuring affected entrepreneurs will get the incentives as announced,” he said today.
Wan Junaidi said the Pemerkasa Plus initiatives for affected entrepreneurs included targeted bank loan assistance for micro enterprises and SMEs that were not allowed to operate during the MCO, a 30 percent discount on rentals of premises under the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) Prihatin programme, wage subsidy programme involving RM1.5 billion, and Prihatin special grant of RM1.5 billion.
Other initiatives are the micro credit financing under Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), National Entrepreneur Group Economic Fund Tekun Nasional, Mara, SME Corp, and Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (YaPEIM) worth RM1.5 billion.
In addition, the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) will consider appeals on the imposition of penalties and defer its payment to next year, and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) will also reintroduced extensions for the submission of financial statements, as well as SSM will exempt late fees for renewing business licences until Dec 31, 2021 for micro, SMEs and for sole proprietorship and partnership businesses.
And the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Covid-19 or Act 829 will also be amended to assist businesses and people who are affected. Operators of hotels, travel and tourism agencies, shopping premises and complexes, convention centres, theme parks and offices of local airlines are eligible to receive a 10 percent discount on electricity bills for three months between July to September.
Apart from that, there will be a special deduction for owners of buildings and business spaces who offer a 30 percent rental discount to SMEs and non-SMEs for six months until Dec 31, 2021.
