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PETALING JAYA: DAP has supported Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s proposal to increase the Department of Social Welfare’s monthly aid for the poor to RM 1,000.
He has also urged the government to extend the moratorium on loan repayments for another six months.
In a statement, the party’s general secretary, Lim Guan Eng, said that Covid-19 had made it necessary to borrow more money to lift Malaysia out of recession.
Malaysia, he said, was the worst performing country in the region, experiencing a 17.1% gross domestic product (GDP) contraction in the second quarter and a high unemployment rate of 4.9% or 773,200 unemployed in June.
This, he said, would likely see the number of welfare recipients rise to one million from 500,000 in 2018, when unemployment was just 3.4%.
In this scenario, increasing aid to RM200 from the current range of RM200 to RM300 would cost the government about RM12 billion for 1 million beneficiaries.
“DAP supports the increase of monthly social welfare aid to RM1,000 as part of the strategic shift in the government’s financial approach from managing government debts wisely to borrowing more money to inject funds to save livelihoods, Malaysian jobs and businesses. “
Yesterday, Muhyiddin put forward the idea of increasing aid and said the proposal would be raised at the next cabinet meeting.
Lim said that if Muhyiddin was willing to consider increasing social welfare spending from RM1.7 billion in 2018 to an estimated RM12 billion to help one million Malaysians, the government should also consider extending the ending loan moratorium. September 30th.
“Why not spend another 6.4 billion ringgit to extend the bank loan default for another six months?
“An extension of the moratorium of this type, whether by government banks, will help more than 8 million Malaysians and businesses.”
The government has announced that the moratorium will be extended another three months for certain groups, especially those who lost their jobs this year.
Lim also repeated his request for an additional stimulus package of RM45 billion to help save jobs and businesses.
