First BSH payment from Jan 28

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will be distributing the first phase of Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH), formerly known as Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M), beginning Jan 28.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that the distribution of the direct cash aid will be relying on the existing pool of data which was used for BR1M, and the BSH recipients will receive the payments via the same distribution methods.

“As mentioned in the Budget 2019, the government will continue to assist in alleviating the cost of living of the bottom 40% income group (B40).

“We (the government) had to use the existing database, which may include recipients who are not eligible to receive the financial aid, to allow the BSH to be dispensed immediately before February 2019,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Lim added that the government requires some time to remove names of ineligible beneficiaries from the current database.

“After the database has been updated, (the remaining) BSH payments will be distributed through a new system as announced in the Budget 2019.

“The system is expected to be ready before the second phase of the distribution, and it will be focused on the lower income group,” he said.

Lim also that the first phase of the distribution will benefit 4.1 million Malaysian households with each family would receive RM300.

“For the first phase, the government is expected to dispense about RM1.2 billion, which will be paid directly to their bank accounts,” he said.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that using the old database does mean that there is a big possibility that some of the recipients are actually ineligible for the aid.

Najib labelled this as yet another U-turn by the PH government.

“Back then Pakatan accused Barisan of bribery, dedak (animal feed) and that ‘cash is king’. Now, they want to speed up BR1M payments.

“The shows that Pakatan finally knows the economic situation is worse than what people expected. They realise that the people are starting to get angry at the Pakatan government,” he said on his Facebook page yesterday.

He maintained that if Barisan were still in power and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was still in place, BR1M payouts would benefit more than what the BSH would.

Former Umno Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin also mocked Lim for using the same database and method used by the previous government to disburse aid.

He reminded Lim of what has been said by the Pakatan government before coming into power.

“Back then you said it was ‘dedak’ (animal feed). Now, you use the same BR1M database. What Malaysia Baru? Oh yeah, no 1MDB,” the Rembau MP said on Twitter.