MIRI – The majority of the 40,000 operators of small-scale entrepreneurs and micro-businesses throughout Sarawak have not received the financial aid promised by the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government in October last year.
According to Pending state assemblywoman Violet Yong, these business owners are now demanding that the aid promised to them under the Bantuan Khas Sarawak Sayangku 7.0 (BKSS 7.0) be paid now.
She said that the frustrated business folks want a deadline for GPS to settle the promised aid.
“Abg Jo (Chief Minister Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg), what happened to your promise to give out BKSS 7.0 RM10,000 for SMEs (small and medium-sized entrepreneurs) and RM3,000 to micro businesses?” she asked in her social media posting and a press statement.
She said more than three months have passed since applications for the BKSS 7.0 were submitted online in October, 2021.
“Many businesses have not received a single sen of aid from the Sarawak state government!!
“Something is very wrong in our state delivery system,” she said.
Last year, GPS promised to help these business owners who were hit badly by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The promised cash aid to each of these recipients was supposed to be delivered before the state election last December.
Yong today compared the swift manner in which the federal government had disbursed financial aid at the national level to the poor delivery by GPS.
The federal government promised Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat aid during the tabling of the November 2022 budget. The money has already been disbursed by the federal government to the state.
“Why is the Sarawak government so slow?
“What GPS promised in October last year, they still cannot pay out when Putrajaya can pay out what was promised late in November,” she said.
Yong wants the state cabinet to make known to the public when it will pay the aid the GPS had promised to the people during the build-up to the December 18 state election. – The Vibes, January 14, 2022
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