MP SPEAKS | Banks should waive interests during loan moratorium period

MP SPEAKS | Malaysia has broken records and achieved international recognition for all the wrong reasons.

Bloomberg placed Malaysia last out of 53 of the world’s largest economies surveyed for Bloomberg's monthly Covid Resilience Ranking, in the country’s ability to provide some sense of normalcy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amongst the reasons for Malaysia’s last-placed performance, Malaysia’s Covid-19 infections per capita are now amongst the highest in the world despite 61.1 percent of the adult population being fully vaccinated with both doses. 

This is not helped by an anaemic economic growth of around four percent for 2021 belying the overly optimistic GDP growth of 7.5 percent in the 2021 Budget.

Covid-19 infections have broken record after record with the highest daily infections of 24,599 and daily deaths of 393 on Aug 26. With a total of 1,662,913 infections and 15,550 deaths, it is not surprising that Bloomberg had ranked Malaysia out of 53 countries, 51st by June this year, then 52nd in July and now 53rd in August.

With the appointment of a recycled cabinet given 100 days to deliver and show high performance when they were a primary cause for Malaysia’s poor performance over the previous 17 months as confirmed by Bloomberg, it is imperative that we do not forget the lessons of the past so as not to repeat the failures of the previous prime minister.

Everyone knows what has gone wrong despite the imposition of serial movement control orders and the Emergency Proclamation.

The current government must stop the double standards in enforcement, the policy flip-flops, the U-turns in SOPs and failures to vaccinate earlier, implement a robust testing programme and mass screenings.

Whilst focus is placed on winning the battle against the Covid-19 and saving lives, immediate attention must be given to saving the livelihoods of countless Malaysians and businesses destroyed by the current economic recession.

There is a need for the winners of the Covid-19 pandemic and economic recession to help those who lost their jobs and businesses as well as struggling to find work or survive. One of the winners is the banking industry, whose profits continue to rise.

The banking industry recorded after-tax profits of RM32.3 billion in 2019 and more than RM23 billion in 2020 despite the economic recession.

The banking industry is expected to significantly improve on its profitability this year compared to 2019, as shown by Malayan Banking Bhd's (Maybank) net profit for the second quarter ended June 30 this year doubling to RM1.96 billion from RM941.73 million last year. Maybank had recorded RM2.39 billion net profits in the 1st quarter of 2021 compared with RM2.05 billion last year.

Maybank is recording better profits than last year for the first half of the year. How many companies will be in the same comfort zone as Maybank in enjoying better profits this year compared to last year?

For this reason, the banking industry should share their good fortune with their customers by waiving interest payments during the loan moratorium period. Taking interest and profits from distressed borrowers who are going under is not the “Malaysian Family” way as advocated by the new prime minister.

LIM GUAN ENG is Bagan MP, DAP secretary-general and former finance minister.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.