KUCHING: The Sarawak government today announced the seventh package of Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS 7.0) involving an allocation of RM800 million to help businesses affected by the recent full lockdown or the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0.
Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Openg said the state government was aware that the businesses, especially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), would need some financial aid, particularly to cover their operational costs, including rental and wages of their employees.
The state government, he said, had discussed and agreed to roll out three measures: financial assistance, relaxation of government procurement policy and renewal of foreign workers' employment permits.
He said a special one-off financial assistance of RM10,000 would be offered for active businesses in Sarawak registered with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) as of Dec 31, 2020.
"This is to ease the financial burden of about 40,000 active businesses in Sarawak that will cost the government of more than RM400 million."
"The special financial assistance will be paid in two tranches – RM5,000 in September and the remainder in December this year," he said at the launch of the BKSS 7.0 at Wisma Adenan, Jalan Sultan Tengah here today.
Secondly, he said, Sarawak would ease the government procurement policy due to the pandemic to support businesses in the construction sector.
Abang Johari said projects with scheduled completion dates expiring within the MCO 3.0 period would be granted Extension of Time (EOT) of maximum 60 days, and Liquidated and Ascertained Damages (LAD) already been imposed shall be waived during the gazetted MCO period as well.
Also, payment valuations and assessments will be automatically carried out at the end of every month without having to wait for contractor's written detailed applications for payment claims and to allow minimum interim payment of RM1,000 monthly for all state contracts.
"Besides, we are allowing the variation of price for government work contracts as a consequence of severe surge in prices for certain construction materials due to the global impact of pandemic, which is estimated to cost the government RM400 million," he said.
Third, Abang Johari said the state government would support businesses that require foreign workers for their business operations through relaxation of renewal of employment permit to to ensure economic resilience during pandemic.
"As such, the renewal of employment permits with the validity of labour licence for the plantation sector until Dec 31, 2022, will be extended to all sectors, namely agriculture, mining, construction and services."
Abang Johari said the Sarawak government had implemented more than 30 initiatives and aid worth more than RM4.5 billion in the BKSS 1.0 to 6.0, since April last year on its effort to ease the people's burden, who had been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.