Jamie Tiew
SIBU: The Sibu Businesswoman Association has warned that effective economic plans to bail out small and medium businesses must be put in place immediately or they could be forced to close indefinitely.
According to association president Jamie Tiew, the movement control order (MCO), which started on March 18, has badly affected small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“During the movement control order, business owners are forced to close and rely on their savings to continue to pay their employees, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Socso (Social Security Organisation), loans, rentals, and all other commitments,” she said when contacted on Tuesday.
She urged the government to come up with an effective plan to help SMEs.
“Some suggestions will be subsidies for employee salary payment and or rental of office space. Tax payments should be exempted for the year 2019 and at least for the first half of the year 2020. Socso and EPF payments should be waived for the rest of 2020 with the protection from Socso still continuing and effective throughout,” she said.
Meanwhile, entrepreneur Dr Gregory Hii Sui Cheng praised the Sarawak government for coming up with the 16 measures under the Sarawakku Sayang Special Aid Package worth RM1.15 billion to mitigate the impact of Covid-19.
He said the move is highly commendable as it is expected to benefit all across the board from individuals to companies and industry players.
“Overall, this is a good initiative taken to mitigate the impact brought by Covid-19 and, personally, I believe it will at least cushion off some of the expenses incurred by the people during these difficult times,” he said.
On the incentives announced by the federal government, Hii hoped the government would consider lowering the personal and company income tax.
“The people have been lobbying for the reduction of the company and personal income tax for years and it has not seen any breakthrough. Hopefully, the federal government will consider such requests now,” he said.
On allowing the withdrawal of RM500 a month from the EPF beginning April 1, Hii said it might not be a good idea as the people would be taking out their own savings for the future.
“Nevertheless, it will help boost private consumption during these difficult times,” he added.