Zafrul: Loan moratorium up to banks, govt will continue to help SMEs

It is up to the banks whether to grant loan moratoriums to small and medium enterprises depending on the companies’ repayment ability, said Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

However, Zafrul (above) said the government can encourage policies that help and assist the people, expressing hope that banks and Bank Negara Malaysia would continue to support micro, small, and medium enterprises that are genuinely facing difficulties.

“I’m optimistic, together with Bank Negara, that our (economic) growth this year will even surpass our expectation, which is between 5.3 and 6.3 percent.

“We are on a growth trajectory, the economy is growing so we need to support the companies that are still in need,” he told a press conference on the sidelines of the Malaysian Banking Conference 2022 today.

Zafrul pointed out that Malaysia’s economy has been growing strongly so far, thanks to rising domestic consumption, a stronger export sector and better loan growth, among others, thus the measures taken during the pandemic-triggered economic crisis might not be the best solution for now. 

He said limited resources should be used to help target groups and blanket support might not be sustainable.

The minister noted that small and medium businesses have received a lot of assistance from the government, such as financing with moratorium in Budget 2022 under the Semarak Niaga initiative.

In fact, the Small and Medium Enterprises’ Association Malaysia (Samenta) has been reported as saying that another loan moratorium will only exacerbate their problems.

Zafrul said the banks are starting to lend even more than the pre-pandemic level, adding that the banking sector’s net financing had grown by 4.9 percent in the second quarter of this year.

“The disbursement has actually surpassed the pre-pandemic level, it went up to RM71 billion in the second quarter of 2022 compared to an average of RM57 billion during 2017-2019. So banks are still lending,” he said.

- Bernama

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