DAP supportive of govt’s proposal to increase monthly social welfare aid to RM1,000 – Guan Eng

Lim Guan Eng

KUCHING: Democratic Action Party (DAP) is supportive of the government’s proposal to increase the monthly social welfare aid to RM1,000 to further ease the burden of the B40 group across the nation.

Its national secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said even though the proposed increase was announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin while campaigning for the Sabah state election in Sandakan on Sunday, DAP would support the proposal.

“DAP expresses support for such a proposal to help those needy financially, especially from the B40,” he said in a statement today.

At present, the monthly social welfare aid ranges from RM200 to RM300, depending on the needy groups.

According to Lim, the government’s annual expenditure of such social welfare payout will increase from RM1.7 billion in 2018 to RM12 billion, if the proposed increase is through.

“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 one 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 some money to inject funds to save Malaysians’ livelihood, jobs and businesses,” he said.

He said the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had placed priority on controlling and managing national debts, especially ballooning of hidden off-balance sheet liabilities, caused by the financial excesses of Barisan Nasional, such as the infamous 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

In light of the Covid-19 economic crisis, he said there is a need to shift to a more strategic financial focus of borrowing more money to lift Malaysia rapidly out of its economic recession.

Lim noted that Malaysia was the worst performer in Asean with a contraction of 17.1 per cent in its gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter.

With unemployment at a high 4.9 per cent or 773,200 unemployed in June, the number of social welfare recipients was expected to swell to one million, from the previous 500,000 in 2018 when unemployment was a low 3.4 per cent, he said.

“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 one million Malaysians, why not spend another RM6.4 billion to extend the moratorium of bank loans by another six months?” he wondered.

Lim asserted that a moratorium extension whether borne by the banks or the government would help a larger number of eight 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 jobs and businesses.

“Extending the Recovery Movement Control Order until Dec 31 will bring about adverse economic impact, and should be accompanied by another economic stimulus package of RM45 billion fund injection,” he added.

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