Cabinet to discuss calls to extend moratorium

KOTA KINABALU: The State Cabinet will discuss the repeated calls for moratorium extension in its upcoming meeting, said State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun.

“Matters relating to the moratorium as well as other proposed assistance would be discussed by the Cabinet in their next meeting,” said Masidi, who is also the state's Covid-19 official spokesperson in a press conference yesterday.

The extension of the moratorium has been a hot topic in the country as of late as several political leaders have called on the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government to do so.

When asked to comment PN's rumoured call for an emergency order in the country, Masidi said he could only comment on the matter if and when the order would actually take place.

Meanwhile, Masidi denied the allegation made by a portal that the food baskets given by the government had cost RM366 each.

He said the RM26.7 million allocation announced on Friday was distributed to all the 25 districts in Sabah for the purpose of the food basket distribution.

However, he stressed that the food basket distribution was still ongoing and that the money was not spent in one go.

“The writer (with the portal) should not have made the assumption that the price of one food basket was RM366 by simply dividing the total amount of allocation (RM26.7 million) with the number of baskets that have been distributed,” he said in his daily press conference yesterday.

He explained that the number of food baskets distributed would increase each day as the government had been actively distributing it on a daily basis.

He went on disclose that, based on the provided guidelines, the price of each food basket is RM100.

As of Saturday, the State Government has distributed a total of 84,814 food baskets.

“What I said was that a total of RM26.7 million have been remitted to all the district offices - for the purpose of purchasing food items to be given to those who are qualified and that the money was not spent at one time.

“It was sourced out according to the schedules and given to those who deserved it. I don't know whether the allegation was done on purpose but probably he (the writer) needs to improve his mathematics,” added Masidi.

On Saturday, the aforementioned portal had questioned how one food basket would cost RM366 as it estimated that the price for one food basket would not be more than RM70.