KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Covid-19 claims worth RM115.19 million have been approved for the recipients of the national insurance protection scheme for the lower income group (MySalam) since the beginning of the pandemic, said Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

"For this year, 108,458 claims amounting to RM92.9 million have been approved for MySalam recipients as of September 30, 2021,” he said in the 71st Inter-Agencies Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit (Laksana) report released today.

The MySalam National Health Protection Scheme is an insurance protection scheme targeting the below 40 per cent income (B40) group through the MySalam Trust Fund.

This scheme provides protection for eligible members of the B40 community worth RM8,000 for 36 critical illnesses.

Details on the scheme can be accessed at https://www.mysalam.com.my/b40/info/?url=ci_BM.

Tengku Zafrul said the MySalam scheme has been extended to those infected with Covid-19 and those who are quarantined as patients under investigation (PUI) in the B40 group under the People’s Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin).

For the short-term employment programme (MySTEP), he said this initiative has successfully achieved the overall target of 50,000 job opportunities where the government has allocated RM700 million for employment opportunities in various government ministries and agencies, as well as government-linked companies (GLCs) on a contract basis.

A total of 35,000 job opportunities have been provided in the public sector, while 15,000 job opportunities have also been provided in GLCs as well as their strategic partners.

As of September 10, 2021, a total of 50,501 employees have successfully secured employment through the MySTEP programme.

"Of this number, a total of 36,463 employees were placed in the public sector while 14,038 employees were successfully placed in GLCs and their strategic partners.

"Although the government has achieved 101 per cent of the overall MySTEP target for 2021, this recruitment effort will continue until the end of this year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said the government has disbursed RM1.386 billion to 80,491 employers to continue to operate and retain employment for 708,109 employees under the Wage subsidy programme 2.0 (PSU 2.0) as of September 24, 2021.

As for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) soft loan funds by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM),  as of 24 September 2021, the total number of applications approved by local banks and accepted by SMEs is RM12.46 billion, which will benefit 26,197 SMEs.

This amount includes Special Relief Facility (SRF), Automation and Digitalisation Facility (ADF), All-Economic Sector Facility (AES) and Agrofood Facility (AF) funds.

"Even though SRF funds have been fully utilised, SMEs can still apply for financing schemes that are still available through BNM funds such as ADF, AES, and AF,” he said.

SMEs can also obtain other financings through the imSME platform at the link https://imsme.com.my/portal/bm/ which can assist to match the required financing with various fund providers for SMEs. — Bernama