BKSS 7.0 one-off financial aid to businesses too little – Chong
KUCHING: The state government’s BKSS 7.0 RM10,000 one-off financial aid to businesses registered in Sarawak is too little for many businesses in Sarawak, said Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
He said the one-size-fitsall aid is not helpful at all to the medium-size or large-size businesses.
“It only shows that the GPS government did not put much thought into the measure to truly help the business sectors,” he said in a statement here.
Therefore, he added, the state government should make some adjustments to the BKSS 7.0 financial aid to businesses registered in Sarawak which should not be a one-size-fits-all amount.
“The government should introduce a multi-tier financial aids grant to Sarawak businesses according to the size of employment of the companies; The financial aids should cover at least 30 per cent of the monthly wage expenses of the companies up to the end of the year and for those owner-operated companies without any workers (i.e. those not registered with Socso), there should also be ways for payment of the RM10,000 one-off financial aid to them,” he said.
He also noted that it has been announced that the RM10,000 one-off businesses financial aid will be paid in two installments of RM5,000 over a period of four months, namely, in September and December 2021.
“While the said RM10,000 oneoff aid maybe helpful to some small business entities, it is far too little to help those mediumsize or large-size companies affected by the current pandemic.
“To put this into perspective, take for example, for a company having about 10 employees, the minimum wages, EPF contribution, rental and other operation costs will easily be RM30,000 per month. From now to the end of the year, the costs will be at least RM150,000. The RM10,000 one-off aid is less than 10 per cent of the costs,” he said.
Chong, who is also Stampin member of Parliament, said in reality, there are thousands of businesses having more than 10 employees.
“For them, this RM10,000 oneoff aid is only a drop in the ocean. It is far too little,” he pointed out.
He added there are also oneman show or owner-operated businesses run solely by the owners of the companies and they are not eligible to register with Socso insurance coverage.
“They will also be left out from this RM10,000 one-off aid,” he said.
Chong also said this was the state government’s first to allocate financial assistance to businesses in Sarawak which is 18 months into the pandemic.
“Yet, despite such long delay in providing financial aids to businesses, the amount now announced is still too little,” he said.