Targeted aid
PEKAN: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak yesterday explained the idea behind the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M), stressing that its main aim was to ensure fairness in distributing aid to the people.
He said the aid was proposed by Bank Negara Malaysia in an effort to enable “targeted subsidies” to be carried out.
“This subsidy is better than a one-off subsidy which has many leakages, for example, the possibility of (fuel) subsidy recipients selling it at the border,” he said.
“Secondly, people who should receive the subsidy are getting less compared to others. For example, with RON95 petrol, people with big cars derive more benefit from those who drive a Proton Saga or Myvi,” he added.
Speaking before a crowd of about 2,000 BR1M recipients at the launch of the national-level BR1M at the Sultan Ahmad Shah International Convention Centre here yesterday, Najib said the government made a policy change to give more benefits to the people through the distribution of BR1M, Bernama reported.
“BR1M is used to buy essential items like rice, sugar, milk and school uniforms … t hi s s t i mulates t he domestic economy.”
Also present were Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob and Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah.
BR1M was introduced in 2012, with RM500 each for nearly 4.1 million recipients, before the amount was increased to RM1,000 in 2016 and RM1,200 in 2017, with a total of RM6.3 billion given out to over 7.2 million recipients.
Distribution of the BR1M aid for 2018, involving an allocation of RM6.3 billion for about seven million recipients throughout the country, will be carried