KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — Payments for Phase 3 of the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) aid for those in non-rural areas of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak will be made by end of next month.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said this would benefit 5 million recipients, comprising 3.8 million households and 1.2 million individuals.
The government has allocated RM3 billion for the third phase.
Recipients for the household category, which will receive up to RM600 per household depending on income level, will also get an additional assistance of RM120 per child (below 18 years old) for a maximum of four children.
“For example, households earning less than RM2,000 with four children will receive RM1,080,” he said in a press statement for the 11th LAKSANA report on the implementation of the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin) and National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).
Tengku Zafrul said as announced earlier, the implementation of the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) cash payment as well as BSH 2020’s second and third phases for the rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak (without bank accounts) would start from July 1 to 31, 2020 facilitated by the Sabah Treasury and Sarawak Treasury.
“This initiative will benefit 53,325 recipients with a total financial payout of RM28.7 million,” he said.
For the Employees Provident Fund i-Lestari programme, he disclosed that a total of 4.34 million applications had been approved as of June 26, with a withdrawal value of RM2.17 billion a month.
On the SME Soft Loan Funds administered by Bank Negara Malaysia, he said as of the same date (June 26), total financing of RM8.4 billion had been approved by local banks and officially accepted by 19,539 small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
On the micro credit schemes, he said 7,577 applications valued at RM260.6 million were approved under the Bank Simpanan Nasional micro credit scheme while the TEKUN programme saw 25,071 applications worth RM191.50 million approved as of June 26.
On Penjana, Tengku Zafrul said under the MY30 programme, the government had allocated RM200 million for unlimited rides at only RM1 per day for 30 days for MRT, LRT, monorail, BRT, RapidKL Bas and MRT feeder bus.
“As of June 28, 66,692 passes had been sold and government’s subsidy for the passes is valued at RM11.3 million,” he said.
For the enhanced Wage Subsidy Programme with an allocation of RM5.3 billion, he said workers in the tourism and prohibited sectors during the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) who had been put on unpaid leave were eligible to receive wage subsidies. This is provided they receive these wage subsidies directly.
Tengku Zafrul said there had been positive growth in job creation and the number of job seekers signing up for job opportunities since the June 15 launch of PenjanaKerja, a hiring incentive and training assistance programme under Penjana.
On the RM108 million social assistance for vulnerable groups under the Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM), he said as of June 25, over 28,000 new single mother registrations had been accepted.
“These registrations are being reviewed and the date of the one-off payment will be announced soon. As a reminder, the registration period is open until October 31, 2020,” he said. — Bernama
