Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) announced that it will be introducing an alternative way for Malaysian companies to seek endorsement of the Certificate of Origin (CO) under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) schemes (other than ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) that will take effect from 30 March to 14 April 2020.

The government has decided to allow employees of the finance or human resources division in the private sector to work for just one day to process payroll in accordance with the law. According to the Human Resources Ministry (KSM), only two employees are allowed for this purpose during the implementation of the movement control order (MCO).

The Ministry of Transport Malaysia (MOT) takes note the issue of commercial vehicles with expired road tax that cannot cross the Malaysia-Singapore border for trading activities following the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Following the Covid-19 outbreak, leniency has been given to hand sanitizer manufacturers using undenatured ethyl alcohol and denatured ethyl alcohol as raw materials. These manufacturers can apply directly to the Taxation Division of Ministry of Finance to receive exemptions of import duties and excises for using the above-mentioned raw materials.

On March 26, 2020, the Minister of Human Resources with powers under Section 19 of the

Human Resources Development Berhad 2001 (Act 612), announced that employers from all 63 sub-

sectors affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak are exempted from 6-month paying the human resource development levy from April 2020 to September 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic is evolving at such a rapid pace that the Government has imposed a Movement Control Order and further extended it to curb the outbreak in Malaysia.

The ensuing uncertainties require organizations to action rapid assessments to mitigate the adverse impact on business operations, financial performance and legal liabilities.

To help organizations stay resilient during this challenging period, we have developed this alert which can help you and your teams navigate across key priority areas - people safety, business continuity, liquidity management and stakeholder management.