Rm20bil Channelled To 357 000 Employers Under Wage Subsidy Scheme

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Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said SMEs could still apply for financing schemes available through Bank Negara Malaysia funds. (Bernama pic)KUALA LUMPUR: The government has channelled RM20.339 billion to 357,520 employers through the Wage Subsidy Programme (PSU) to maintain the employment of 2,953,741 local workers in an effort to reduce the unemployment rate.
Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said that for this year, up to Feb 4, a total of RM14.643 million had been channelled to 1,482 employers to continue operating and maintain the employment of 24,405 workers.
With an allocation of RM600 million under Budget 2022, the government, through the Social Security Organisation (Socso), will continue the implementation of PSU targeted at tourism operators who experienced a decrease of at least 30% of total sales or income in October 2021 to December 2021 compared to any month in 2019 until 2021 before the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic.
“Applications are open from Jan 1 until March 31 this year. Employers from sectors and industrial activities not listed but are still affected by the Covid-19 outbreak can also submit an appeal online to Socso,” he said in the 84th Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (Laksana) report released today.
More information on the scheme is available in the Socso website:  https://www.perkeso.gov.my/bajet-2022/sip-bajet-2022.html.
Meanwhile, for PSU 4.0, as of Feb 4, a total of RM2.27 billion has been channelled to 146,519 employers to continue operating and maintain the employment of 1,755,737 employees.
The government is implementing PSU 4.0 with an allocation of RM3.8 billion, which is expected to benefit 2.5 million workers.
“The salary limit of RM4,000 has also been relaxed, which allows employers to apply for PSU 4.0 for their employees who earn more than RM4,000,” he added.
Meanwhile, for the SME Soft Loans Funds under the purview of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the total amount approved by local banks and accepted by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is RM12.59 billion, which will benefit 26,379 SMEs as of Feb 4.
This amount includes Special Relief Facility (SRF), Automation and Digitalisation Facility (ADF), All-Economic Sector Facility (AES) and Agrofood Facility (AF) funds.
Tengku Zafrul said although the SRF fund had been fully utilised, SMEs could still apply for financing schemes that are available through the BNM funds such as ADF, AES and AF.
SMEs can also obtain other financing through the imSME platform at the link https://imsme.com.my/portal/bm/ which can assist in matching the required financing with various fund providers for the SMEs. - FMT

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