“Kita Prihatin” with Wage Subsidy Programme 2.0 for affected businesses

Just in case you have forgotten that 2020 was supposed to be the Visit Malaysia Year, let us remind you that it has unfortunately fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic. All the pre-booked holiday packages or pre-planned trips had to be cancelled, given the worldwide travel restrictions to curb its spread.

Tourism and hospitality industry taking a plunge

Since the enforcement of the Movement Control Order in March, industry players are staring at a bleak prospect as the tourism and hospitality sector is now plunged into a critical state, struggling for survival at least.

Worse, we are still finding it hard to fight against the virus, which has so far infected over 51 million people and taken away over 1.2 million lives globally. And we don’t know, or nobody knows for sure, when will this be over, let alone knowing the worst.

It is a worldwide crisis plaguing the tourism and hospitality industry, so unprecedented and so sudden, with the impact felt across all the other symbiotic sectors, especially the airline industry. Livelihoods are at stake for millions of people, especially those who lost their jobs, not discounting the possibility of losing it permanently.

Hoteliers in critical state

At home, Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) chief executive officer Yap Lip Seng worries that some 15% of the hotels in Malaysia may have to shut down their operations due to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, with 35% of the hoteliers temporarily halting their businesses. A total of 4,880 hotels, including budget hotels, are registered with the Tourism Ministry.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Datuk Abdul Halim Mansor has expressed grave concern about the wellbeing of hotel workers who are worst hit by the pandemic, with some forced to go on leave, take unpaid leave or pay cut and of course, some were laid off unfortunately.

According to him, over 30,000 employees of the hotel sector in the country had lost their jobs, while more than 10,000 people were forced to take unpaid leave, and more than 6,000 others had to take pay cuts because of the pandemic.

Kita Prihatin: Wage Subsidy Programme 2.0

The RM10 billion Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (Kita Prihatin), through the RM2.4 billion Wage Subsidy Programme 2.0, which is now extended until 31 December 2020, comes in handy and timely as the tourism and hospitality industry is still struggling for survival. There are over 200,000 people in the accommodation services alone, according to the statistics released by Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

As of 31 October 2020, the government has channelled RM12.5 billion to fund the wage subsidy programmes (PSU and PSU 2.0), which is expected to benefit more than 330,000 employers and 2.6 million employees nationwide, according to Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz who also said that almost RM18 billion in total will be allocated for these two programmes.

Industry players welcome the financial assistance with a big sigh of relief, which is one of the most-utilised initiatives by employers.

“We have never carried out layoffs or proposed Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) since March, compared to most hotels in KL. We must say that the Wage Subsidy Programme has been helping us a lot to keep our people onboard and to give the badly affected ones a chance to basically survive financially in the past six months,” remarked Franck Loison, General Manager of Sofitel Kuala Lumpur Damansara.

Applications are still open

Wage Subsidy Programme 2.0 is still open for application until 31 December 2020. Click here for the full details of this very important component of Kita Prihatin.