INTERIM prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will announce the government’s financial package to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak tomorrow.

The announcement will take place at 3pm at Bangunan Perdana Putra in Putrajaya, said an invite from the Finance Ministry.

Earlier this morning Dr Mahathir Mohamad convened a meeting with the Finance Ministry’s top officials to discuss the stimulus package.

There were fears that the economic package announcement scheduled for tomorrow would have to be put off following Dr Mahathir’s resignation as prime minister as well as the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ruling pact.

Former deputy international trade and industry minister Ong Kian Ming told The Malaysian Insight yesterday that funding for the move had yet to be approved at the time of PH’s collapse and the cabinet’s dissolution on Monday.

Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng was supposed to present the package to Dr Mahathir on February 24, which also happens to be the day the latter resigned as prime minister.

Lim said in a statement yesterday that he finalised the package on Sunday, his “last full day as finance minister” and was supposed to present the package on Monday.

However, he met the interim prime minister yesterday to discuss the matter.

The DAP secretary-general said Dr Mahathir has indicated that the economic stimulus package will go ahead on a date to be announced by him in his capacity as interim prime minister.

Tourism players and small and medium industries, meanwhile, told The Malaysian Insight that they want Putrajaya to expedite the announcement of stimulus package to cushion the impacts of the virus outbreak as soon as possible.

Dr Mahathir made a shock announcement to resign as prime minister at the weekend. Minutes after Dr Mahathir’s resignation, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin withdrew his party from PH, throwing the ruling pact into chaos, and resulting in it losing power.

Minutes after Bersatu’s pullout, Dr Mahathir announced that he had also quit as the party’s chairman.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is currently in the process of interviewing all MPs individually to ascertain who has the majority support to be the prime minister. – February 26, 2020.