Guan Eng urges govt to extend moratorium
The government should extend the loan moratorium given to borrowers by another six months to save businesses and jobs, said former finance minister Lim Guan Eng.
The member of Parliament for Bagan said that by saving businesses, jobs would also be saved.
"We (the opposition) hope the government will extend the moratorium by another six months like what Japan has done...
The government should extend the loan moratorium given to borrowers by another six months to save businesses and jobs, said former finance minister Lim Guan Eng.
The member of Parliament for Bagan said that by saving businesses, jobs would also be saved.
"We (the opposition) hope the government will extend the moratorium by another six months like what Japan has done. We are asking for this first although there are other matters (that we want the govt to consider),” he said when speaking at a community function in Bukit Bendera, Penang, today.
Lim (photo, above), who is also Air Putih assemblyperson, added that financial lifelines were important to help revive the economy and also the people.
On March 25, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the moratorium on loan repayments that is due to end on Sept 30.
The measure was necessary to assist the business sector and individuals as Malaysia was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in the country coming to an almost standstill until early May.
From the movement control order phase introduced on March 18 to contain Covid-19, Malaysia is now in the recovery phase after successfully battling the pandemic. The recovery MCO enforced for this phase has seen almost all economic sectors opened up and is due to end on Aug 30.
Lim is the secretary-general of DAP which along with PKR and Amanah make up the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition.
Meanwhile, the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) has expressed its concerns to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) over the upcoming expiry of the six-month loan moratorium at end-September 2020.
BNM on Friday held a meeting engagement with ACCCIM to seek the business community’s feedback on the loan moratorium.
The meeting was chaired by BNM deputy governor Jessica Chew and attended by senior officials of the central bank. Also present were ACCCIM president Tan Sri Ter Leong Yap and the Socio-Economic Research Centre (SERC) executive director Lee Heng Guie.
In a statement today, Ter said the association hoped that BNM would announce the follow-up flexible repayments programme to help individuals and businesses manage through this difficult time.
ACCCIM also shared the findings of its survey, titled "Malaysia's Business and Economic Conditions Survey" for the first-half of 2020 with BNM.
The survey revealed that a higher 37 percent of companies indicated that they have less than three months cash flow to cover business operations while 42 per cent of respondents have 3-6 month’s cash flow.
About 45.7 percent of total respondents need an additional six months of loan moratorium while 20.7 percent are asking for an additional three months.
Ter said BNM had informed that the financial institutions are currently actively engaging with borrowers to offer assistance for their loan repayment and credit facilities after the end of automatic loan moratorium in September.
Amongst the flexible repayments are lower monthly instalment, step-up repayment, and loan tenure extension.
The targeted approach will assist sectors and borrowers that operate and work in highly vulnerable industries and sectors and those that operate and work in highly vulnerable industries and sectors which would take a longer time to recover.
He said towards this end, the central bank had urged borrowers to make early preparation to engage with their bankers in crafting a suitable flexible repayment programme based on their financial positions and needs.
Ter said ACCCIM welcomed BNM and financial institutions' continued proactive approaches to assist businesses and borrowers in loan repayments programme to support the economic and business recovery so as to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We would also like BNM to consider giving more flexibility in allowing any Rescheduled and Restructured (R&R) loans/financing to not be classified as credit-impaired in the Central Credit Reference Information System and Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) until 2021,” he added.
- Bernama
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