KUALA LUMPUR: The cumulative applications for SME Soft Loans Funds under Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) approved by local banks and accepted by the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) totalled RM10.4 billion as at Sept 4, 2020.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the fund had benefitted 22,688 SMEs compared with applications worth RM10.3 billion last week, which benefitted 22,440 SMEs.
“This amount includes Special Relief Facility (SRF), Automation & Digitalisation Facility (ADF), All-Economic Sector Facility (AES) and Agrofood Facility (AF),” he said in the 21st LAKSANA report on the implementation of the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN) and National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA) issued yesterday.
Tengku Zafrul said although SRF funds had been fully utilised, the SMEs can still apply for available funding schemes under BNM funds including AFG, AES and AF.
The SMEs can also acquire other funding via imSME platform at the link, https://imsme.com.my/portal/bm/ that will help match the required funding by SMEs with multiple financial institutions.
For the Bank Simpanan Nasional Micro Credit Scheme, payment had been made to 10,695 SMEs as at Sept 4, 2020, involving a total of RM361.3 million while under the Tekun Programme, payment had been made to 25,616 SMEs involving a total of RM194.2 million.
Meanwhile, the PENJANA Wage Subsidy Programme had benefitted 2.62 million employees with wage subsidy assistance totalling RM10.41 billion.
The wage subsidy programme is one of the government initiatives to assist the people impacted by COVID-19.
For frontliners allowance, a total of RM267.4 million had been channelled as at Sept 4, 2020, based on 827,974 claims comprising doctors, nurses and other medical personnel who have been directly involved in the management and containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For taxi drivers, the government had channelled a one-off cash assistance to 33,377 taxi drivers totalling RM20 million, while a total of 7,622 tourist guides had received a one-off cash assistance amounting to RM4.6 million.
For Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) COVID-19 Assistance Programme (e-CAP) for Employers, a total of 68,985 applications had been received as at Sept 4, 2020, out of which 12,994 applications worth RM84.5 million had been approved for the employers’ EPF contribution. – Bernama