The Malaysian Association Tour Agency (MATA) has urged the Government to allow the RM1 billion PENJANA Tourism Financing (PTF) facility to be managed directly by Malaysia's Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC).

Datuk President Mohd Khalid Harun said that the Tourism Association suggested that the scheme be taken away from financial institutions because they did not respond to the government appeal to help sustain the capacities of small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-sized enterprises and to enable companies to increase their competitiveness in anticipation of the COVID-19 crisis recovery.

“To-date, not even one percent of the scheme’s amount has been approved by the financial institutions,”  he said in a statement 

The PTF facility has been developed to fund transformation initiatives for tourism small and medium-sized enterprises through 12 local financial institutions to make it viable and competitive in the new standard.

With an annual rate of 3,5 percent and a repayment period of up to seven years, this facility provides a working capital loan of up to RM300000 for qualified SMEs.

Minister of Finance Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz recently reported on a total of 303 small and medium enterprise enterprises applying for this aid as of September 25 and approving a total of RM 17.5 million, which would support 90 small and medium enterprises.

Mohd Khalid stated that some of the members of MATA had complained about the rejection of their request to the financial institution because of strict conditions.

"As a result, the government's intention to help SMEs and micro-enterprises is failing and causing the tourism industry’s outlook to remain bleak.

“Banks need not implement the regular standard operating procedures in approving applications because the industry’s situation is not very good currently,” he said.

He noted that the tourism industry played a major part in the Gross Domestic Product when economic conditions were strong, which is the reason why the government established the facility.

“But the banks are making it difficult (for the SMEs), even more so now that the blanket moratorium has ended," he said.