E-Tunai Rakyat: 380,000 Applications On First Day, Guan Eng Assures All Eligible Malaysians Will Receive RM30 Credit

Alex Cheong Pui Yin

16th January 2020 - 2 min read

(Image: The Star)

Yesterday marked the launch of the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative, which saw 380,000 applications made to the three e-wallet partners – Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Boost, and GrabPay – by 10 p.m.. The spike in applications from Malaysians resulted in unexpected downtime for some of the e-wallets.

Of all the applications, 320,000 have been approved. This translates to a disbursement of more than RM10 million, which Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said is an overwhelming response from the public.

“We expect more to come on board and adopt e-wallet and apply for the initiative before it ends later,” he said.

A downtime notice posted on TNG eWallet’s Facebook page. The e-wallet app was down for several hours on 15 January.

Guan Eng also announced that all eligible applicants will get the RM30 incentive as long as they apply within the initiative period, reassuring the public that this will not be a “first come, first served” affair.

He added that the government may consider topping up the initial RM450 million allocated for the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative if the number of applicants were to increase. “Malaysians who have registered need not worry they may lose out should the initial allocation be met. We have room to accommodate the increase.”

“All Malaysians aged 18 and above and earning below RM100,000 per annum are eligible. No one will be left out,” said Guan Eng. He urged Malaysians to claim their RM30 credit if they have yet to do so, especially since each e-wallet partner are also boosting the incentive with extra bonuses.

(Image: The Malaysian Insight)

Guan Eng also addressed the public’s concern about privacy issues and data breaches, promising that the applicants’ personal details will not be shared with third parties as these details are protected under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012.

“We understand the public is worried that their consumption pattern will be misused by the third party but we are not running a business so we will not allow any organisation to profit from that,” said Guan Eng.

(Source: New Straits Times, The Star)

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Alex Cheong Pui Yin

Previously covered recruitment-related stories and had a short stint as a copywriter for the property industry. She subsequently developed an interest in investment and robo-advisors.

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