Whilst campaigning for the Sabah state general elections in Sandakan yesterday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin suggested that the Social Welfare Department’s monthly aid of between RM200 and RM300 for needy people be raised to RM1,000. Even though this increase is part of the Prime Minister’s political calculations for the Sabah state elections, DAP expresses support for such a proposal to help those needy financially, especially from the B40.
This would increase yearly government expenditure of such social welfare payments of RM1.7 billion from over 500,000 recipients in 2018, to RM12 billion from the expected increase in recipients to 1 million Malaysians. DAP supports the increase in social welfare monthly aid to RM1,000 as part of the strategic shift in the government’s financial focus from managing the government debts prudently, to borrowing more money to inject funds to save Malaysian livelihood, jobs and businesses.
The previous PH government have placed priority on controlling and managing our debts, especially the ballooning of hidden off-balance sheet liabilities, caused by the financial excesses of BN such as the infamous 1MDB scandal. With the COVID-19 economic crisis, there is a need to shift to a more strategic financial focus of borrowing more money to lift Malaysia rapidly out of our economic recession.
Malaysia is the worst performer in ASEAN with a contraction of 17.1% in our GDP for the 2nd quarter. With unemployment at a high 4.9% or 773,200 unemployed in June, the number of social welfare recipients is expected to swell to 1 million, from the previous 500,000 in 2018 when unemployment was a low 3.4%. This would bring up the cost of increasing social welfare aid of RM1,000 monthly to a yearly sum of RM12 billion.
If Muhyiddin is willing to consider increasing the expenditure for social welfare from RM1.7 billion in 2018 to RM12 billion to help 1 million Malaysians, why not spend another RM6.4 billion to extend the moratorium of bank loans by another 6 months? Such a moratorium extension whether borne by the banks of the government, will help a larger number of 8 million Malaysians and companies.
To help 32 million Malaysians, an additional RM45 billion of fund injection is needed for another round of stimulus package that will help save Malaysian jobs and businesses. Extending the Recovery Movement Control Order until 31 December will bring about adverse economic impact, and should be accompanied by another economic stimulus package of RM45 billion fund injection.