KUALA LUMPUR: Over 2.6 million employees and 322,000 employers will benefit from the Wage Subsidy Programme (PSU) and PSU 2.0 following a government allocation of RM11.9 billion announced last month.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the programme aims to assist employers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic to sustain businesses and reduce retrenchment.
"As of Oct 23, RM11.9 billion in wage subsidies had been approved to benefit more than 322,000 employers and 2.6 million employees.
"In total, almost RM18 billion has been allocated for programmes under PSU and PSU 2.0," he said in the Dewan Rakyat today in response to Datuk Ahmad Nazlan Idris's (BN-Jerantut) question on the ministry's post-recovery movement control order plans.
Tengku Zafrul also pointed out that the government had come up with four economic stimulus and economic recovery packages.
"The total value of the economic stimulus packages is RM305 billion.
"Last Friday, I also tabled Budget 2021, with a RM322.5 billion expenditure, which is the largest in the country's history," he said.
Tengku Zafrul added that the government had allocated RM11.9 billion in the form of one-off assistance, set to benefit more than 16.3 million recipients.
"Under the stimulus packages, among the initiatives implemented to provide temporary relief of their daily burden are one-off cash assistance under the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional; and an additional RM100 one-off payment under Bantuan Sara Hidup."