KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Law Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said today said that 6,047 residents in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur last year were categorised as poor according to the federal poverty data bank e-Kasih.

Azalina was responding to Barisan Nasional’s Titiwangsa MP Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani on the total number of poor residents in the country’s capital from 2018 until 2022.

She said that the number of poor residents quadrupled between 2020 and 2021 as the data was filtered using a new Income Poverty Line (PGK) that was established in 2019.

"Meanwhile, the poverty data from 2018 to 2020 is based on the PGK Per Capita 2016. The Ministry of Economy and the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) set the new PGK, after the government reviewed the calculation methodology based on the expenditure pattern of low-income households.

"PGK per capita is the total monthly household income and it is divided by the number of household members,” she said in a Parliamentary reply.

She also said that the government is working with various agencies including the Federal Territories Department (JWP), Federal Territories Religious Council (MAIWP) and the Social Welfare Department (JKM) to ensure the integrity of e-Kasih data.

Azalina said that the government has been implementing various programmes for a long time to overcome the problem of urban poverty and has applied the concept of Malaysia Madani development in its implementation.

"Thus, the planned urban poverty initiatives are not limited to increasing income alone but should also involve well-being in terms of health, education, housing and standard of living,” she added.