What are SME grants
Small and medium businesses were the ones affected most by the pandemic. If you are a small business or a medium-size business owner or are willing to be one, here’s great news for you - The Malaysian government has a number of financial aids and grants which will be a lifesaver for your small business, giving a boost to the growth of your enterprise.
1. Soft Loans for SMEs (SLSME)
What is the grant:
SLSME helps SMEs in the country, with loan funds for Project financing, Working capital, Capital expenditure and Information Technology. Maximum amount depends on what type of financing SMEs intend to get from the incentive.
- Project financing: RM 5 million
- Capital expenditure: RM 5 million
- Working capital: RM 3 million
- IT hardware and software: RM 500,000
For the mentioned grants, the financing rate is 4% per annum, and the tenure depends on the type of business or on what exactly the loans are spent on.
Who should apply:
SMEs, start-ups, any micro-businesses requiring funding.
2. Wage Subsidy Programme (WSP 3.0)
What is the grant:
WSP 3.0 is a financial aid to help SMEs or enterprises registered with MCO with paying salaries and wages. Since the Pandemic struck all types of businesses, income was significantly reduced, therefore some businesses had to sack their employees or cut their payouts. In order to help these groups of people, WSP 3.0 was introduced for all businesses.
Who should apply:
Any micro or small and medium enterprise. Every business is liable for a subsidy of RM 600 per employee. The business will only be able to make claims for employees with a salary of more than or equal to RM 4,000 a month, and only liable to claim for not more than 500 employees.
What is the grant:
To promote and help SMEs adopt digitalisation in their business, or take it online to enhance productivity and effectiveness. Grant offers RM 5,000 to SMEs that have the potential to digitise their businesses.
Who should apply:
All micro, small, and medium businesses, willing to digitise their business. An SME can apply up to 3 different digitisation programs. The claims can only be made once for each service by any SME. This grant is provided for a period of 5 years starting from 17th February 2020 or when it has been claimed by 100,000 SMEs, whichever happens first.
4. Boosting online businesses
What is the grant:
Since the size of the target audience has shrunk due to the pandemic, more customers are found on online portals. In these instances, the survival of offline SMEs has become scarce. This grant was thus introduced to help E-commerce sellers, and other SMEs and individuals, to go online and use online payment methods, thereby increasing their reach and bringing in more business.
Who should apply:
E-commerce sellers, micro, small and medium businesses, and individuals.
Beneficiaries additionally receive training for onboarding e-commerce and e-payment, and training for and sales support and seller subsidy.
5. Supporting New Startup Launches
What is the grant:
To promote establishment of startups. Since most startups do not have enough funds to run a high-end venture, paying large amounts of taxes might become an issue.
Who should apply:
Any business recently launched between July 2020 and December 2021 can claim a tax rebate. The government has extended the fundraising limits up to RM 20 million, and the threshold for indebtedness has been increased to RM50,000 by SMM. Additionally, registered businesses will be able to raise funds by crowdfunding. What’s more? This grant offers free business registration to students willing to launch their own startups as well, thereby covering a broad range.
The level of application is relatively easy for all these grants. Refer further down below for a summarised version of what is to be done when applying.
Process to obtain grants
This depends on the type of grants you are interested in and applying for. There are certain kinds of eligibility requirements that SMEs are required to fulfill and qualify like:
- Valid registration under laws of Malaysia
- Have a track record of operations
- The type of sector the SEM is associated with
How to apply and register for grants - 5 simple steps
Finally, you will get the application number ID such that you can track down the status.
On top of Malaysia actively launching grants to financially aid SMEs, they additionally offer free courses and training for employees and business owners. Thus, make use of these benefits to give your business the additional push it needs to bring it to greater heights.
For more information, contact Trustana.
- https://www.mprc.gov.my/finance/soft-loan-scheme-for-small-medium-enterprises-slsme
- https://www.mprc.gov.my/finance/soft-loan-scheme-for-small-medium-enterprises-slsme
- https://belanjawan2021.treasury.gov.my/manfaat/index.php/en/sme-digi-en
- https://blog.fundingsocieties.com.my/sme-grants-malaysia-2021
- https://www.malaysiabrands.com.my/blog/soft-loan-for-smes-slsme-malaysia-sme-should-know-about/
- https://www.smecorp.gov.my/index.php/en/programmes1/2015-12-21-10-03-39/bumiputera-enterprise-enhancement-programme-beep
- http://belanjawan2021.treasury.gov.my/manfaat/index.php/en/permai-tra-en#:~:text=Targeted%20Repayment%20Assistance%20(TRA)%20is,for%20a%206%2Dmonth%20 moratorium.
- https://belanjawan2021.treasury.gov.my/permai/faq/psu-en.html
- https://belanjawan2021.treasury.gov.my/manfaat/index.php/en/sme-digi-en#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20SME%20Digitalisation%20Grant%20Scheme%3F&text=A%2050%25%20matching%20grant%20of,enhance%20their%20productivity%20and%20competitiveness.
- https://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/malaysia-introduces-pemerkasa-plus-economic-stimulus-package/
- https://belanjawan2021.treasury.gov.my/manfaat/index.php/en/pk-hiring-en
- https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/04/18/boost-for-women-entrepreneurs
- https://midec.org.my/grants-and-loans/
- https://www.safework.sa.gov.au/news-and-alerts/news/news/2021/grants-supporting-health-and-safety-initiatives-now-open