Following yesterday’s announcement of MCO being extended, PM Muhyiddin announced today (June 28, 2021) a new economic recovery package called Pemulih.
RM150 billion will be used to extend financial aid, amongst other initiatives, to Malaysians. Here’s what employees can expect from Pemulih.
Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat extension
RM500 will be added for those receiving the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) in July where payments will be made from June 29. The 3rd phase of the BPR providing cash handouts between RM100 and RM1,400 will be paid in September.
Payments for those who succeeded in appealing for former BPR schemes will also be paid in September. A total of RM4.9 billion will be paid out in the BPR initiative.
Income Loss Assistance
RM500 will be channeled to those who’ve lost their jobs based on data from EPF or SOCSO in 2021. This assistance is expected to benefit up to 1 million members with a total allocation of RM500 million.
Job seekers’ allowance
Job seekers’ allowance will be expanded to SOCSO non-contributors, especially to new graduates and those in the informal sectors. They can register at MYFutureJobs and will receive an allowance of a minimum RM300.
Place & Train initiative
RM125 million will be channelled to HRD Corp to implement the Place & Train initiative under the Janapreneur programme to school leavers and new graduates. This initiative is expected to open up opportunities to 30,000 people to follow the programme’s skills training with job security upon completion of the course.
MDEC will also improve the existing programmes which include eRezeki and GLOW to help over 20,000 job seekers in the gig economy.
Bantuan Khas COVID-19
The Bantuan Khas COVID-19 (BKC) is expected to benefit more than 11 million households, elderly, and singles with an allocation of RM4.6 billion.
This initiative will be provided to several groups:
- Extremely poor households will be given RM500 in August, RM500 in November, and RM300 in December. Singles in this category will receive RM200 in August and RM300 in November.
- B40 households will receive RM500 in August and RM300 in December. Singles in this category will receive RM200 in August.
- M40 households will receive RM250. Singles in this category will receive RM100 in August.
Electricity bill discounts
Electricity bill discounts between 5% to 40% will be given up to a maximum usage of 900 kilowatt (KWh) hours a month.
This includes a 40% discount for usage that is below 200KWh hours, and 15% discount for usage that is between 201KWh hours and 300KWh hours. In total, Malaysians can expect to save up to RM346 million in electricity bills for 3 months from July.
Free daily internet
1GB of daily free data will be provided by telecommunications companies until the end of the year. This initiative is estimated to be worth RM500 million and will benefit 44 million registered customers all over the country.
Prihatin Special Grant (GKP) 3.0
Eligible recipients under the Prihatin Special Grant (GKP) 3.0 initiative will receive an additional RM500. Payments are expected to be made by mid-July this year. In total, the government has allocated RM5.1 billion through the GKP initiative.
Wage Subsidy Scheme
The Wage Subsidy Scheme will be extended for the 4th time with an allocation of RM3.8 billion, expected to benefit more than 2.5 million workers. Through this scheme, 500 workers will be supported per employer with an assistance of RM600 per worker for 4 months.
This will be condensed to 2 months for every sector in the 2nd phase of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), and another 2 months for the sectors categorised as negative in the 3rd phase of the NRP.
There are no salary limit conditions, so employers can apply for the scheme even if their employees earn over RM4,000 a month.
Aid for people with disabilities
RM500 will be provided to disabled individuals who have lost their jobs or have been unemployed, and are not a recipient of the Disabled Workers Allowance. This financial assistance will last for a period of 3 months. A total of RM30 million has also been allocated to benefit 20,000 people with disabilities.
Moreover, a General Initiative Network Programme (JITU) will be introduced to provide basic business capital assistance and mentoring the disabled and homeless in entrepreneurship. A total of RM20 million has been allocated for this purpose and is expected to benefit over 40,000 individuals.
PenjanaKerjaya programme
The PenjanaKerjaya programme that is due to end in June will be extended with several improvements. This includes reducing the salary eligibility limit from RM1,500 to RM1,200 for the “Malaysianisation” programme. It’s a programme that provides incentives to employers in replacing foreign workers with local ones.
The employment contract period will also be reduced from 12 months to 6 months for employees aged 50 and above, the disabled, and ex-prisoners.
EPF withdrawals
KWSP will introduce a new withdrawal facility called i-Citra. A total of 12.6 million EPF members can make withdrawals of up to RM5,000. This comes with a fixed payment rate of RM1,000 per month for 5 months, subject to the member’s total EPF savings.
This is expected to channel RM30 billion to the people to support their daily needs. Members can start applying for the facility on i-Citra’s online portal from July 15, with the first payment expected to be credited to the member’s account in August.
Automatic moratorium
An automatic moratorium of 6 months will be provided to all borrowers, whether they’re in the B40, M40, or T20 groups. Borrowers will only need to apply, and approval will be given automatically by the banks. Applications will open on July 7, 2021, where borrowers are also required to sign an agreement on the related loan terms.
Further, affected insurance and takaful policyholders can also apply for deferment of payment on insurance premiums and opt-in contributions to takaful until December 31, 2021.
These initiatives include policyholders, life insurance holders, and takaful families. More than 1 million people are expected to benefit from this extension with a total allocation of RM2.6 billion.
Featured Image Credit: PM Muhyiddin Yassin’s Facebook page