Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has announced some revisions to the Program Jaringan Prihatin and eBelia programme under the new PEMERKASA stimulus package, allowing eligible individuals to enjoy higher subsidies for their telecommunications needs as well as e-wallet credit allowances.

Under the original Program Jaringan Prihatin – which was revealed during the tabling of Budget 2021 – B40 individuals were entitled to receive a financial aid of RM180 for the purchase of new phones or telco credit. Now, it has been revised to offer a higher RM300 subsidy, and will be offered to households with school-going children.

Aside from that, the schedule for Program Jaringan Prihatin has also been slightly revised. Originally scheduled to begin this month (March 2021), it has now been postponed to May 2021 instead. With these revisions, the government is now allocating a total of RM2 billion for this programme – RM500 million more than the initial RM1.5 billion that was earmarked for it during Budget 2021.

Meanwhile, the eBelia programme has also been further expanded to offer RM150 worth of of e-wallet credit to youths aged between 18 to 20 years old, as well as students studying in institutions of higher learning. For context, the eBelia programme was also introduced during the tabling of Budget 2021, and initially allowed each youth to redeem a one-off RM50 digital incentive in the form of e-wallet credits. Subsequently, it was increased to RM100, before settling on its latest amount now.

With this, the allocation for eBelia programme will be increased from the original budget of RM75 million (when it was first introduced) to RM300 million, and is expected to benefit 2 million youths. The prime minister also said that they hope to kickstart the eBelia programme in June 2021.

• TAGS:
• Budget 2021
• Cash Aid
• E-Wallet Credit
• eBelia Programme
• One-Off Payments
• PEMERKASA
• Program Jaringan Prihatin
• Subsidy
• Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin