PHOTO: World Bank Malaysia

While there was a wide range of reactions and responses to the Prime Minister’s announcement of the Pakej Perlindungan Rakyat dan Pemulihan Ekonomi (PEMULIH), many experts see the move as timely and a way for the government to make the most of an extraordinary situation

The aid package amounting to RM150 billion comes just in time to alleviate the suffering of many people especially businesses and runs parallel to a National Recovery Plan (NRP) that was implemented earlier by Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The highlight of the PEMULIH aid package is the continuation of the Wage Subsidy Scheme for the fourth time since the Movement Control Order started sixteen months ago. An allocation of RM3.8 billion has been set aside for this purpose to benefit some 2.5 million workers.

Under PEMULIH, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has created a new withdrawal facility called i-Citra where a total of 12.6 million EPF members can make withdrawals of up to RM5000 with a fixed payment rate of RM1,000 per month for five months.

There is also a six-month loan moratorium for all borrowers whether they are from B40, M40 or T20 groups. Borrowers will only need to apply and approval will be given automatically by the banks with effect from 7 July 2021.

There are hopes that this measure will witness some of the money flow into the stock market and this might improve sentiment, participation and trading volume on the local bourse. Experts expect most of this flow to go into equities.

But they don’t see the market returning to the ‘hot’ levels of 2020. Investors who want better yield and investment returns are advised to set aside some of their extra disposable income for this purpose as the fixed deposit rates are low.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE