Violet Yong
KUCHING (Jan 14): Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong is urging the state Economic Planning Unit (EPU) to expedite the processing of Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance (BKSS) 7.0 applications from small, medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro businesses, and to inform when the funds will be disbursed.
In a statement yesterday, she said even though application for the one-off financial aid was opened for online submission sometime in October last year, many applicants are still waiting for the aid from the state government.
“I urge the state Economic Planning Unit under the Chief Minister’s Department to inform the public as to the required time frame for the unit to process all the BKSS7.0 applications received from SMEs and micro-businesses, as well as the deadline to fully release the money to all eligible companies.
“No doubt there is a small percentage of SMEs which had either received the full amount of RM10,000 or the first payment of RM5,000, but the majority of the companies including the micro-businesses have yet to receive a single cent as promised,” she said.
Yong said she was disappointed by what she felt was the lackadaisical attitude of the department which handles and processes BKSS 7.0 applications.
She claimed that to date, there has been no official statement updating on the number of applications received, nor the exact date for the disbursement of the money.
“When such a simple task to give out the BKSS7.0 aid could take up to months to process and there is no time line in releasing the aid, it is obvious that there is something very wrong in the delivery system of the state government.
“The Sarawak EPU is just not efficient when it comes to processing and approving the BKSS7.0 financial aid.”
According to her, it only took a few weeks for the Finance Ministry and federal government to disburse financial aid including Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat and Geran Khas Prihatin, even though the number of applicants was in the millions.
“Hence there is no reason for the state government to take such a long time to process and review the applications submitted by only about 40,000 applicants or less,” she argued.
Yong said due to the pandemic, businesses are having a hard time and are deeply in need of financial aid from the government.
“The state EPU needs to issue an official statement to inform on the latest status of the BKSS 7.0 aid for SMEs and micro businesses.
“It is unacceptable to keep prolonging aid which was promised in 2021. The state government should not further delay the matter but quickly fulfil its promise by disbursing the funds to all eligible business owners,” she said.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3nruQ69
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