KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — The Muhyiddin government’s RM20 billion Pemerkasa stimulus package announced yesterday will not be enough to kickstart Malaysia’s battered economy post-Covid-19, DAP’s Lim Guan Eng asserted today.
The Opposition lawmaker also claimed the RM20 billion to be misleading, saying the package will only see a fiscal injection of RM11 billion into the economy and urged Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to check his figures.
“How can a mere RM11 billion in fiscal injection pull Malaysia out of its economic recession, when the GDP contracted by 5.6 per cent in 2020?” Lim said in a statement.
The former finance minister insisted that a larger injection of RM45 billion is a more realistic figure to lighten the financial pressures of Malaysians post pandemic and revitalise the economy.
“Clearly the Pemerkasa RM11 billion fiscal injection is insufficient to jump-start the economy when RM45 billion economic ‘big bang’ is needed.
“Therefore, the government must urgently implement an additional economic stimulus package of RM45 billion to help the unemployed, create new jobs and save existing ones, slow down business closures, provide rental subsidies for businesses, overcome the education crisis and provide new sources of future growth,” said Lim, who is also Bagan MP.
Yesterday, Muhyiddin announced the latest Pemerkasa stimulus package, the first this year, as part of the government’s efforts to lighten the effects of the ailing economy caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among the initiatives announced by Muhyiddin include additional funding towards the national vaccination program, allowances to front liners, one-off payments and government grants, tax exemptions and deferments and even utility bill discounts.
Lim today also questioned the government’s justification and calculations behind the Pemerkasa package, claiming that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration had wrongly forecasted its own fiscal performance for 2020.
“The Finance Ministry had projected the 2020 unemployment rate to rise to 4.2 per cent, GDP growth rate to contract by 5.5 per cent, and the budget deficit to surge to 6 per cent.
“Instead, unemployment rose to 4.5 per cent, the economy contracted by 5.6 per cent and the budget deficit ballooned to 6.2 per cent.
“Despite a list of small initiatives, Pemerkasa fails to inspire in that it sticks to the old paradigm of one-off payments instead of a sustainable recurring assistance until the end of the Covid-19 induced crisis,” he wrote.
Lim asked if the government was serious when it promised RM1,000 monthly welfare payment to those in need, and to supply some 150,000 tablets and laptops for students.
The DAP secretary-general also questioned the rationale in several initiatives announced in the Pemerkasa package, saying giving one-off payments within the hundreds of ringgits but implementing fines of SOP violations of up to RM10,000 was counterproductive.
“What is the point of giving RM 500 one-off assistance to individuals and RM3,000 one-off grants to small businesses when they can be fined RM10,000 for individuals and RM50,000 for businesses?
“Giving a little with the right hand but taking more with the left hand does not help to lessen the financial burden of the rakyat.
“The government should not be like an ostrich in the sand, in a perpetual state of denial at the severity of the economic recession on ordinary Malaysians and businesses,” wrote Lim.
