Govt agrees to write off debts of Felcra participants

The government today agreed to write off the debt of Felcra Bhd participants and disburse payments amounting to RM181.5 million in 2/2022 interim profit distribution for its participants.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said he was informed that the Felcra board of directors had approved the proposal to request that the government write off the outstanding debts of the Felcra participants, amounting to RM233.8 million for less viable projects.

"As of December 2021, a total of 323 projects involving ​​22,173 hectares had been identified as less viable projects. If the yields are low, how can they pay the debts?" he said at a programme with Felcra participants, Risda smallholders and Orang Asli at Arena Merdeka in Tapah today.

However, Ismail said matters pertaining to the cancellation of the Felcra participants’ debts needed to be brought to the Cabinet meeting for approval.

He said he hoped these could be submitted to the Cabinet after the 15th general election.

Meanwhile, Ismail announced that a total of 74,949 Felcra participants nationwide would receive 2/2022 interim distributable profits amounting to RM181.5 million.

"Payments will be disbursed in stages from today," he said.

The prime minister said he was happy that Felcra Bhd had managed to continue its good performance, recording an increase of almost RM51 million or 38.1% in profit compared to last year.

He said Felcra had also succeeded in developing abandoned and less viable land into estates owned by the participants and congratulated the agency for raising the value of rural land.
 
For the Risda smallholders, Ismail said assistance in the form of a one-off grant amounting to RM15,000, with RM10,000 for the purchase of equipment and RM5,000 for training purposes, had been provided for the youth.

The government has also approved RM191 million in monsoon aid of RM600 each to be distributed in November and December for 232,319 Risda smallholders.

Ismail, who used to be the rural and regional development minister, said Risda was allocated RM3.019 billion under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).

He said Risda was also allocated RM269 million under the 12MP for entrepreneurship programmes, expected to benefit 77,183 smallholders, and expressed confidence in Risda achieving its aim to increase the income of smallholders to RM4,500 per month per family in 2025.