COVID-19 Relief Aid(s): Asia
Having covered the relief plans of the American sector, geography which witnessed the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases, the natural progression lies in focusing on the hotbed of the outbreak.
Asia.
The epicenter of the outbreak lies in Wuhan, a city in China where the first reported case of the virus originated from. The initial months of the outbreak were predominantly focused in the Asian regions, therefore making the relief aids and contingency plans from these geographies a road map for countries to follow
Kicking it off with,
China
Monetary Aids
Small and Micro Businesses and Agricultural Entities
The state financing guarantee fund will work with banking entities in bulk guaranteed loan businesses, planning to increase 400 billion yuan (about $56.52 billion) in reinsurance service.
Policy-Based
Tax measures
The Chinese government has rolled 20 targeted incentives, including cutting value-added tax, consumption tax, and corporate and individual income taxes, as well as waiving employers’ payments to various social insurance schemes.
Cross-border economic cooperation zones
The Ministry of Commerce and the Export-Import Bank of China will strengthen financial support for cross-border economic cooperation zones, serve enterprises’ needs to respond to the epidemic, to resume work and production and to expand the business, promote the innovative development of border trade, and foster new momentum for the development of border areas.
RRR cuts for small, medium-sized banks
China’s central bank announced a decision to cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for small and medium-sized banks by 100 basis points. The RRR cuts will be implemented in two phases, namely April 15 and May 15
Shared spaces for SMEs
The Beijing Business Incubation Association has offered shared working spaces free of charge or reduced prices for small and micro-businesses.
India
Monetary Aids
$1 billion aid by World Bank
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a fast-track $1 billion India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project to help India prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen its public health preparedness.
Center-Based Relief Package
The Government announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore relief package aimed at providing a safety net for those hit the hardest by the COVID-19 lockdown, along with insurance cover for frontline medical personnel.
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana includes higher wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA), Rs 1,000 ex-gratia payment to nearly 30 million poor senior citizens, widows and disabled as well as insurance coverage of as much as Rs 50 lakh each for about 2 million healthcare workers battling the disease.
States have been asked to use the Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund to provide relief to construction workers and the first installment of Rs 2,000 under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Yojana will be front-loaded to reach 87 million farmers in April.
Policy-Based
GST and indirect tax measures
The Government of India has changed the dates for filing GST annual returns and indirect taxes to the last week in June with no interest, late fees or penalties.
Relief measures for corporate affairs
There are many relief measures and extensions of deadlines for companies set by the government.
- Any document, return or statement that is required to be filed in the MCA-21 Registry, irrespective of its due date, will have no fees for a late filing up until 30 September 2020.
- Applicability of Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 will be made applicable from the financial year 2020–2021 instead of from 2019–2020.
- The requirement to create a Deposit reserve of 20% of deposits maturing during the financial year 2020–21 before 30th April 2020 will have the deadline extended to 30th June 2020.
PM Cares
Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a new fund to help deal with emergencies like the coronavirus, Called the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, or PM CARES Fund, opening up the fund for foreign contributions from both by individuals and institutions
Corporate Contributions
Azim Premji Foundation
IT czar Azim Premji committed Rs. 1000 crore ($134 million) through his philanthropic arm, the Azim Premji Foundation. The foundation’s 1,600 employees will work together with the government and healthcare workers. The money will be used for humanitarian aid and for beefing up healthcare support targeted at containment and treatment of the disease.
Reliance Industries
RIL Chairman, Mukesh Ambani has contributed Rs. 500 crore to the prime minister’s fund.
- Rs. 5 crores ($660,000) for the relief fund of the chief minister of Maharashtra and an equal amount for the relief fund of the chief minister of Gujarat state, where Reliance’s biggest refinery complex is located.
- Setting up a 100-bed COVID unit in Mumbai to provide free meals across multiple cities to the daily production of 100,000 masks by Reliance.
Tata Trusts
Ratan Tata, who chairs India’s oldest philanthropic outfit, Tata Trusts, the biggest shareholder of the group’s holding firm, Tata Sons, has earmarked Rs. 500 crore towards tackling the pandemic. This sum is said to include covering the costs of
- Protective gears
- Ventilators
- Testing kits
- Establishment of modular treatment centers and training for healthcare workers.
Tata Group Chairman N. Chandrasekaran pledged an additional Rs. 1000 crore to support activities in collaboration with Tata Trusts.
Singapore
Bank funding
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that it will provide up to US$60 billion of funding to banks in Singapore through a new MAS USD Facility.
Jobs Support Scheme
The Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) was launched in Budget 2020. Employers will now receive a 25% cash grant (up from 8%) on the gross monthly wages of each local employee on their Central Provident Fund (CPF) payroll.
The monthly wage cap will also be raised to $4,600 (up from $3,600) per employee. The JSS will be extended to cover nine months of wages (up from three months) to be paid in two additional tranches.
Stabilization and support package
A $4 billion stabilization and support package aim to help workers remain employed through wage support and reskilling opportunities, and help businesses with cash flow and operating costs.
Tax rebate
An expansionary budget will provide a universal 25% corporate tax rebate (capped at $15,000) for all companies. Tax losses and unabsorbed capital allowances can be carried for three years instead of one.
Hong Kong
Anti-epidemic fund
The Government has set aside $710 million under the Anti-epidemic Fund to implement targeted measures to support the construction industry in combating the effects of COVID-19
$30 billion funds were established to provide relief to businesses, safeguard jobs and stimulate the economy.
$17 billion is allocated for enterprises and organizations to use at their discretion, such as pay employees’ wages.
Malaysia
Economic Stimulus Package
The government has allocated RM250 billion to support businesses including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and RM2 billion to strengthen the country’s economy.
The Government and Bank Negara Malaysia will provide an additional RM4.5 billion to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including micro-entrepreneurs
Special Facilities Assistance Fund for SMEs increased by RM3 billion and interest rates dropped to 3.5% from 3.75%
Size of the All Economic Sector Facility fund increased by RM1 billion to RM6.8 billion to further enhance financing access to SMEs;
The Government has allowed the suspension of payment of income tax installment to all SMEs for three months beginning April 1, 2020
The cushioning of the impact of the COVID-19 seems to now have a blueprint of
- Central Fund Announcement
- Tax relaxations
- Job security
The aids mentioned above form the tip of the iceberg of the mobilization that the countries have set in motion both at government and private levels.
In case you are aware of additional initiatives or resources based out of Asia, both private and otherwise, please leave them in the comment box below enabling us to develop an exhaustive list.
Next week, we shall concentrate on the European Sector and their relief strategies in place, being the hotbed of the outbreak from day one.
