Categories: Notices & StatementsPublished On: 03/04/2020

DEAR MEMBER FIRMS

SURVEY ON THE IMPACT OF THE MOVEMENT CONTROL ORDER (MCO) AND EFFECT OF THE ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE ON MIA MEMBER FIRMS

The Institute is very much concerned with the unfavourable outlook of the COVID-19 and how it is affecting our operations, members, member firms and the profession. We are continuously monitoring and analysing the situation in order to identify and formulate the next best course of actions.

There are various announcements that we have made to all members since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the implementation of MCO. The Institute had also issued two circulars on 28 March and 31 March specifically for member firms, i.e. the consolidated supporting measures that are available to assist member firms and the FAQs on Auditing in facing the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Some member firms have reached out to MIA on the challenges they are facing now such as the cash flow issue due to substantial delay in fee collection from clients and disruptions encountered in the daily workflow. Please be assured that proposals on how to address the short-term cash flow issue and how to minimise the disruption to daily operations have been submitted to the relevant authorities for consideration. Those efforts include the following:

  • Letters to SSM, Bursa Malaysia and Inland Revenue Board on the extension of reporting and other deadlines;
  • Proposal to Ministry of Finance before the announcement of second Economic Stimulus Package. The recommendations in the proposal include tax incentives, training subsidy, additional short-term soft loan, grant and etc;
  • Obtaining confirmation from BNM that member firms that meet the threshold requirement under the national definition of SMEs are eligible to apply for special relief fund and other special funding schemes under the Economic Stimulus Package;
  • Appeal letter to Majlis Keselamatan Negara to classify professional accountancy services as one of the essential services and hence allow accounting firms the option to operate like normal;
  • Working with financial institutions to develop a special financial scheme for professional firms.

The Institute is now taking another step further to gather feedback on the impact of MCO on member firms and to what extent the economic stimulus package can assist member firms to alleviate the impact. In order for your voices to be heard by the Government, we need industry-wide data and constructive feedback. Please click HERE to participate in the survey.

As we are collecting data on member firms, only one submission is allowed for each member firm. If there are multiple submissions, we will take the last submission as final. The deadline to participate in the survey is on Monday, 6 April 2020 at 5.00 p.m.

We look forward to your contribution.
Thank you.

Yours faithfully

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF ACCOUNTANTS

DR. NURMAZILAH DATO’ MAHZAN

Chief Executive Officer