KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 ― Some 52,000 micro small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that submitted appeals for the Prihatin Special Grant 2.0 (GKP 2.0) will receive payments totalling RM155 million on February 5, which will be credited directly into their registered bank accounts, said Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

In a statement today, he said the approval status could be checked starting tomorrow via the GKP portal.

To ensure that only eligible micro SMEs that meet the set conditions get the one-off aid of RM3,000, every application received by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) was cross-checked and verified with data from relevant government agencies including the local authorities and Companies Commission of Malaysia, he said.

The GKP 2.0 appeal period was from December 7 to 21, 2020.

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GKP 1.0 and GKP 2.0 recipients, including those whose appeals were approved, comprise nearly 900,000 micro SMEs with financial assistance totalling RM2.7 billion.

Prior to this, the government had announced a payout amounting to RM2.55 billion for more than 850,000 micro SMEs under these two programmes.

Under the Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (Kita Prihatin) announced in September last year, the government reopened applications for GKP 2.0 for eligible micro SMEs which did not previously receive the aid.

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Tengku Zafrul also noted that under Budget 2021, an additional GKP of RM1,000 was announced for traders and hawkers in Sabah involving a total allocation of RM50 million. This was expected to benefit 50,000 micro SMEs.

Meanwhile, under the Permai (Malaysian Economic and Rakyat’s Protection Assistance Package) GKP initiative, which involves an additional allocation of almost RM830 million, he said it had been extended to 815,000 SMEs in states implementing the movement control order (MCO 2.0) with a payment of RM1,000 each, while 35,000 SMEs outside the MCO 2.0 areas. ― Bernama