PM: More Cash Assistances To Come For Malaysians After BKC

Chee Jo-Ey

7th September 2021 - 2 min read

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has commented that the government will be channeling more cash assistance to Malaysians who are impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic starting from next month. This is on top of the Special Covid-19 Aid (BKC) that is already being distributed as of yesterday.

The prime minister, who held a video conference to check on the distribution of the BKC payments, emphasised that BKC is only one of the assistances provided to help Malaysians weather through this difficult period. “Hopefully, what the government is giving today, although it may not be much, at least it can help reduce the people’s burden,” he said, referring to the BKC initiative.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz – who was also present at the call – clarified that the government has various other forms of assistance in the pipeline to be given out until the end of this year. One such aids is the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) cash aid, where payments for Phase 3 involving a total of RM2.32 billion are scheduled to be made at the end of this month. To recap, BPR was first introduced during the tabling of Budget 2021 as an enhanced version of the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) initiative to help B40 households.

Another aid that is also due to be disbursed soon is the cash assistance for those who are unemployed (Bantuan Kehilangan Pendapatan), scheduled for October 2021. This one-off financial aid of RM500 will be channelled to individuals who had lost their income, based on data from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO). For context, this unemployment aid was first announced back in June 2021 during the unveiling of the PEMULIH stimulus package.

“The prime minister has agreed to proceed with these assistance,” said Datuk Zafrul during the video conference.

(Source: The Malaysian Reserve)

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