THE government’s latest stimulus, Pemerkasa, is not enough to jump-start the economy, said Lim Guan Eng.

“How can a mere RM11 billion in fiscal injection pull Malaysia out of its economic recession, when the GDP contracted by 5.6% in 2020,” said the former finance minister in a statement today.

“Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin appears to have forgotten that his RM305 billion Prihatin economic stimulus package and RM322.5 billion 2021 Budget last year, as well as the RM15 billion Permai stimulus package in January this year, were deemed ineffectual in preventing either an economic recession or an international credit ratings downgrade for Malaysia by Fitch Ratings.

“Clearly the Pemerkasa RM11 billion fiscal injection is insufficient to jump-start the economy when RM45 billion economic “big bang” is needed,” he said.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin announced Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) latest economic stimulus valued at RM20 billion although the fiscal injection is only RM11 billion to help Malaysians cope with the effects of the second movement-control order (MCO).

But Lim said more was needed as the government had missed its own targets of unemployment, GDP growth and budget deficit.

“The Finance Ministry had projected the 2020 unemployment rate to rise to 4.2%, GDP growth rate to contract by 5.5% and the budget deficit to surge to 6%.

“Instead, unemployment rose to 4.5%, the economy contracted by 5.6% and the budget deficit ballooned to 6.2%,” said DAP secretary-general.

He said that Pemerkasa was uninspiring as it stuck to the old paradigm of one-off payments instead of sustainable recurring assistance until the end of the Covid-19 induced crisis.

“What happened to the government’s promise of increasing the monthly welfare aid to RM1,000 including the unemployed, 150,000 tablets and laptops for students, EPF self-withdrawals up to RM10,000 and also automatic extension of the bank loan moratorium (except Top 20)?” said Lim.

“What is the point of giving RM500 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?” he said.

He said 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. – March 18, 2021.