Jonathan Chua
KUCHING | The Sarawak Business Federation (SBF) is disappointed with the Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package’s salary subsidy condition, which requires employers to prove at least a 50 per cent loss of income.
Secretary-general Jonathan Chai said this condition might cause some unwanted uncertainties or even controversies.
“As the nature of business of some contractors for example, their income might be seasonal. Their income could not be compared on month to month or even quarter to quarter basis, that would also apply to some consultancy firms,” he explained in a statement yesterday.
He pointed out that the profit of certain small and medium enterprises (SME) was so marginal that a 30 to 40 per cent drop in business volume would probably “kill them off, let alone the threshold of 50 per cent”.
He said the government must bear in mind that keeping jobs should remain the top priority as this is key to reviving the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic is over.
“Save businesses to save jobs. That’s why countries like Britain, Denmark, and even our neighbouring Singapore go to great lengths to help the businesses to fund the payment of their employees with the primary objective of keeping the jobs for their people and avoiding mass retrenchments after things return to normalcy,” he stressed.
Chai welcomed the suspension of contributions to the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) for six months from April and that employers would also be allowed to restructure or defer the payment of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contribution for employees pending the official announcement on the guidelines by the EPF on April 15.
He said the two measures would help ease the cash flow of businesses, especially the SMEs badly affected by the MCO.
“Contrary to what we hoped for originally to have a tax cut or tax holiday for the corporate and income taxes for 2019 fiscal year, we will only be allowed to defer any payment of tax for a period of three months from April 1.
“The grace period would probably not render much help practically to the businesses,” he said.
Chai also noted the extra injection of RM4.5 billion into different types of facilities specifically catered for SMEs.
“We hope that the banks concerned would process and disburse the loans or facilities as expeditiously as possible so that the SMEs in need could truly reap the benefits offered by the government,” he said.
Chai added front liners such as medical and security personnel assigned to carry out MCO duties “deserve a bigger sum of allowances as our noble gesture to appreciate their selfless sacrifices to the extent of even risking their own lives for the sake of the well being of the general public”.
“For that matter, I think our government should also provide special allowances to all the reporters and media personnel who are the key disseminators of information to the public during this critical time,” he said.
