Guan Eng to PN: Stop spending on coups, extend loan moratorium instead

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has urged Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Perikatan Nasional (PN) to focus on expanding financial aid to the rakyat, such as extending the loan moratorium, instead of spending money on political coups.

“DAP expresses deep disappointment at the PN government’s unreasonable refusal to extend the existing moratorium on bank loans by another six months when it expires on Sept 30, which will help 7.7 million individual borrowers and 245,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs). No reason has been given by Muhyiddin.

“DAP urges Muhyiddin to stop spending money on political coups to bring down Pakatan Harapan/Warisan state governments but focus on expanding financial aid to small businesses, workers’ salaries and extending loan moratorium by six months to save small businesses from bankruptcy and job losses,” Lim (above) said in a statement today.

He said the cost of extending the loan moratorium is considerably small relative to the benefits.

While banks had lost a total of RM6.4 billion since the implementation of the six-month moratorium, he said this is a “small price” to pay for the banking industry as it earned an estimated RM32 billion in after-tax profits for 2019.

The Bagan MP said RM32 billion should provide sufficient cover for banks to bear the RM6.4 billion cost, adding that the banks can also use this as an opportunity for corporate social responsibility to aid their customers during the Covid-19 crisis.

“Even if the banks are unwilling to cough up the RM6.4 billion, the federal government can bear the cost of RM6.4 billion to aid the 7.7 million individual borrowers and 245,000 SMEs,” Lim insisted.

Not only that, but he also said the RM6.4 billion cost is small compared to the tens of billions of ringgit in additional loans over and above the 2020 Budget loan provisions to finance the Covid-19 economic stimulus package.

The former finance minister pointed out that failure to do more to help the people would only give rise to a suspicion that the Prihatin economic stimulus package worth RM295 billion is “only heard but not felt”, in that it only benefits certain well-connected groups but not the ordinary Malaysians and SMEs.

Lim also claimed that there has been no increase in the RM2.1 billion Geran Khas Prihatin (GKP) where RM3,000 was given to 700,000 SMEs, but there were at least 155,000 eligible micro-SMEs that could not apply for the special grant in time.

As such, he urged the government to top up the GKP with another RM1 billion.

“Similarly, there is also no extension of the Program Subsidi Upah to assist workers until end of March 2021.

“With the unemployment rate soaring to 5.3 percent or 830,000 unemployed workers, such an extension is needed now to save jobs. Why wait to assist workers only after jobs are lost?” he asked.

Lim had first urged the government to extend the loan moratorium by another six months to save businesses and jobs back on July 18.

On July 29, Muhyiddin announced that the loan reliefs, which the government had negotiated with banks, will shift to a targeted approach when the blanket loan moratorium expires.

The moratorium, which began on April 1 and will end on Sept 30, allows borrowers to defer their loan repayments during the period.

After Sept 30, the general public is required to resume repayment on their loans but several targeted reliefs will be available for certain segments of society.

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