KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — The government has approved 6,973 applications with a total loan value of RM1.315 billion under the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Financing scheme as at Feb 26, 2021 compared with RM1.258 billion last week.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the total allocation of RM2 billion under this scheme prioritised SMEs which have not received loans from banks previously.

For the Penjana Micro Credit Financing, he said a total of RM391.9 million had been channelled as at February 26, benefitting some 11,708 micro SMEs.

"This is an increase of RM28.5 million, while micro SMEs which have benefitted from the scheme grew to 934,” he said when presenting the 44th Inter-Agencies Economic Stimulus Implementation & Coordination Unit (Laksana) report on Thursday. 

Tengku Zafrul said the Bumiputera Relief Financing (BRF), which was introduced by Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Bhd (PUNB) with an allocation of RM200 million, saw 641 SMEs receiving funding amounting to RM182.8 million as at Feb 26, 2021.

For the Wage Subsidy Progamme (PSU) 1.0, he said, as at its closing date on Sept 30, 2020, a total of 322,177 employers and 2.64 million employees had benefitted from this programme under the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin) and Penjana.

"As at February 26, applications for wage subsidy that had been approved was worth RM12.769 billion.

"For the Wage Subsidy Programme 2.0 (PSU 2.0), as at February 26, a total of RM808.31 million had been channelled to 66,591 employers to enable them to continue operating and maintain jobs for 554,876 employees,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul added that the Recruitment Incentive Programme and Training Assistance was also showing encouraging results.

"As at February 26, a total of 131,568 workers had successfully secured employment through this programme compared with 130,328 last week.

"Among the major industries and sectors that recruited employees included those in the manufacturing sector, as well as wholesale and retail trades," he said. — Bernama