GEORGE TOWN, March 12 — The incentive cash payment under the Penang state government’s Senior Citizens Appreciation Programme, Phase 1 of 2020, scheduled to start on March 14 has been postponed indefinitely due to concerns over the spread of Covid-19.

State Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman, Phee Boon Poh said the postponement involved three districts, namely Northeast, Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) and Seberang Perai Utara (SPU).

"For SPU, involving the state constituencies (Kadun) of Permatang Berangan and Sungai Dua, the recipients were scheduled to receive the payments from March 14 to 15 and from 21 to 23 respectively.  In SPT involving Berapit and Northeast district involving Datuk Keramat, they should receive the payments from March 21 to 22.

"This postponement is for the cash payment recipients only. It is to prevent people from converging at the Kadun offices for long periods so as to reduce the risk of Covid-19 infection,” he said at a news conference, here, today.

As such, Phee advised the 157,335 cash payment recipients out of a total of 191,858 to register for EFT (electronic funds transfer) at the nearest bank before getting the ‘I-Sejahtera Secara EFT’ form from the Kadun office or District and Land Office for their applications to be processed.

He said since February 17 until now, the state government had made the incentive payment to 34,523 recipients via EFT.

"The cash recipients can get the EFT form to enable the payment to be made in the current year.  Also, the Kadun coordinating officers will peruse the applicants’ information to ease the application process, besides sending messages via SMS to the recipients on payment information,” he added.

The Senior Citizens Appreciation Programme is a state government welfare initiative to assist eligible elderly with a contribution of RM150 once a year.

On a related development, Phee said the Penang government had also cancelled a number of official programmes in the state following the COVID-19 outbreak.

"For functions with over 100 attendees, the organisers need to study the safety aspect as part of the standard operating procedure to prevent the risk of infection,” he said. — Bernama