KUCHING – The Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) 5.0 special aid announced by Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Openg yesterday has been rubbished as a “cut-and-paste” recycled version of its predecessor BKSS 4.0
“The BKSS 5.0 stimulus package has little for you and me to pick up our lives again,” said Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo.
“This is because the financial assistance does not extend to putting any ‘consumer power’ into the pockets of the ordinary man on the street.
“Where there is no consumption, there is no demand for goods and services, and the economy will never move.”
Soo said exemptions on business licence and permit fees will not revive the battered economy.
As for the exemptions on rentals and assessment rates, many Sarawakians still cannot afford to own a property, she said.
“How many small-time Sarawak businessmen have the luxury of having their business premises on state-owned properties?” she said, commenting on the exemption of rental payments for SMEs operating in business premises owned by Sarawak GLCs.
Even if some assistance reaches small businesses that manage to continue operations, she asked how it would help them when there is no demand.
She also questioned where the customers and buyers are, although businesses remain open.
Soo added that many rural folks still lack water and electricity despite exemption on utility payments.
She proposed for the Sarawak government to instead grant an emergency basic income (EBI) of RM200 every month for 12 months for all Sarawakians above 18 years of age.
“This across-the-board cash handout must be unconditional and expedited on the urgency for speed, efficiency and efficacy.
“An EBI will help to ease the financial pinch suffered by Sarawakians who have fallen on hard times, especially daily paid workers, labourers, farmers, retrenched staff, unemployed school leavers, and jobless graduates.”
She said the EBI for one year will cost about RM4.5 billion but this government spending will put cash into the pockets of Sarawakians to increase consumption, increase money supply and generate a multiplier effect.
According to her, BKSS 4.0 and 5.0 are only half-measures to mitigate the economic fallout.
She said helping businesses to stay afloat temporarily is not the complete answer if it is not coupled with economic initiatives to increase demand for their goods and services.
“In a faltering economy, the only way to ensure the flow of money circulating through the financial system is to generate liquidity in the market to increase consumption and demand which allows businesses to bounce back and create job opportunities.”
Soo hopes BKSS 6.0 will have something for every Sarawakian to get on with their daily lives, instead of the repeated temporary measures for small businesses and small segments of the population only, which fail to put our economy back on track. – The Vibes, January 23, 2021
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