KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced today that the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Covid-19 Act 2020 will be extended.
He said the Act, which was enacted to assist individuals and businesses that were economically impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak, expired on Dec 31 last year.
"As such, based on the current situation and the Movement Control Order (MCO) announcement, the government has agreed to extend the effective period of inability to perform contractual obligations to March 31 this year.
"This includes hire purchase or lease contracts and credit sales contracts which benefit groups such as the B40, M40 and micro enterprises who are unable to meet their contractual obligations," he said during the announcement of the Perlindungan Ekonomi dan Rakyat Malaysia (Permai) assistance package today.
He said that under the Permai initiative, the government will also accelerate the implementation of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and Micro SME e-Commerce Campaign and Shop Malaysia Online campaign, with a total allocation of RM300 million.
The campaign is to support entrepreneurs and businesses in generating income through online sales or e-commerce platforms.
"Through these campaigns, micro entrepreneurs will receive business coaching and on-boarding onto e-commerce platforms while buyers will enjoy savings through online shopping," he added.
He also announced that the government would improve the existing Danajamin Prihatin Guarantee Scheme amounting to RM50 billion.
The enhancement measures are - increase the maximum financing from RM500 million to RM1 billion; expand the scope of financing to cover working capital with a guarantee period of up to 10 years; and allow foreign-owned companies operating in Malaysia to also obtain the guarantee provided that Malaysian employees account for at least 75 percent of their workforce.
"To alleviate the burden of SMEs, the government has given a special tax deduction to any company that provides a reduction of rental on business premises to SMEs of at least 30 percent from the original rental rate from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021.
"Based on current economic conditions, this special deduction will be expanded to cover the rental reduction also given to non-SMEs.
"This special deduction period will also be extended until June 30, 2021.
"In addition, the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) will exempt the employer levy for companies that are unable to operate during the MCO and Conditional MCO periods," he said.