Moratorium: Govt can compel banks, save M40 from becoming B40 - Guan Eng
Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng has rebutted his successor Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz’s claim that Putrajaya cannot compel banks to extend the automatic loan moratorium to the M40 (middle 40 percent income earners) group.
Lim said there are various laws that give the federal government authority over banks but noted Putrajaya could use the emergency to force banks on the moratoriums.
“This dispute can be easily resolved by...
Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng has rebutted his successor Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz’s claim that Putrajaya cannot compel banks to extend the automatic loan moratorium to the M40 (middle 40 percent income earners) group.
Lim said there are various laws that give the federal government authority over banks but noted Putrajaya could use the emergency to force banks on the moratoriums.
“This dispute can be easily resolved by the exercise of emergency powers to amend various laws during the Covid-19 crisis period.
“Such a bank loan moratorium until the end of the year when the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) is completed, can benefit eight million Malaysians and companies and can be easily absorbed by the banking industry’s healthy after-tax profits," Lim said in a statement today.
A three-month bank loan moratorium is currently being offered to the B40 (bottom 40 percent income earners), those who have lost their jobs, or businesses that cannot operate during the total lockdown.
However, the Bagan MP believed that the loan moratorium should be extended to the M40 group as well, as they are taxpayers who contribute to the nation's coffers.
“Denying the M40 the same offer is not sympathetic to their current financial plight, which may cause them to slip down to the B40 group,” Lim said.
Meanwhile, the DAP secretary-general also noted that there is a difference between bank loan moratoriums in the first movement control order (MCO) and the current full MCO.
“The full MCO hire-purchase loan interest is (currently) accrued for future payment unlike during MCO 1.0 when the hire purchase loan interest was waived.
“Such accrual of hire-purchase loan interest will cut down cost for banks and the government should reveal the cost borne by banks compared with their tens of billions of after-tax profits,” Lim said.
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