KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 -- The government has been urged to help loan borrowers who have defaulted on their loan repayments for more than three months to the extent of being declared bankrupt and their properties being auctioned off.

The Malaysian Association for Consumers and Borrowers Solutions (4PM) president, Rosland Mohd Arif said this happened after their income was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those who were self-employed.

“It is not because they refuse to pay. They want to pay the loan instalments, but in the amounts that they can afford, not according to the instalment amount set by the bank,” he told Bernama today.

He said banking institutions should exercise tolerance to facilitate the matter and not take hasty actions such as declaring bankruptcy on the borrowers and auctioning off their properties, despite the appeals they made to the bank.

Rosland said loan deferments or loan moratorium was only eligible to borrowers who had no outstanding arrears from the date it came into force.

"These troubled borrowers should be given priority in the moratorium exercise and reschedule (their loans) according to their affordability,” he said, adding that since the outbreak of the pandemic, the association had been receiving 50 complaints per day regarding this issue.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (FOMCA) deputy president Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman hoped that the PRIHATIN aid and assistance introduced by the government to ease the people’s financial burden during the pandemic such as the e-wallet initiative could be continued to encourage them to spend more thus boosting the business sector.

-- BERNAMA