KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 18): Local manufacturers want the government to expand the newly gazetted Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Act 2020 to include manufacturing and other manufacturing-related services such as trading or distributorship and logistics given the contraction in manufacturing activities due to the harsh impact of the pandemic and the recent imposition of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

While the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) thanked the government for the initiatives announced under the RM15 billion Perlindungan Ekonomi dan Rakyat Malaysia (Permai) assistance package, it sought for more support during the MCO 2.0 period.

In a statement today, the federation said the Act is currently limited to nine categories of contract, which exclude manufacturing and its related supplies. The Act came into force on Oct 23 last year.

Thus, it is requesting for the Act to be expanded to provide provision for relief for manufacturing and other manufacturing-related services such as trading or distributorship and logistics.

"In addition, as the current Act is very specific in providing temporary relief for contractual obligations faced during this pandemic period, FMM has proposed for a Disaster Management Act to be enacted which will account for other disasters including devastating floods or possible future outbreaks and not specific to Covid-19 only," its president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai said in a statement today.

It also asked that the effective period of the Act on the inability to perform contractual obligations be extended to March 31.

FMM also said while the extension of the wage subsidy under the Wage Subsidy Programme 3.0 has been enhanced to cover 500 employees/company for a one-month period, it hopes that it would be extended to three months as there would be cascading impact on business operations even after operations have resumed after the MCO.