PETALING JAYA: With the focus being on ways to ease the burden on families and individuals struggling amid the cost of living crisis, relief measures are being fast-forwarded by the government with the impact to be felt in January itself.
For starters, those eligible for cash aid under Bantuan Tunai Rakyat (BTR) will receive their payments this month, unlike previous aid programmes where recipients had to wait until March.
Under Phase One involving an allocation of RM2bil, almost nine million recipients will benefit, with RM300 disbursed to each household and RM100 to single recipients.
The BTR is a continuation of several previous targeted aid programmes.
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Families with schoolgoing children will also receive some quick relief, with the government to provide early schooling aid of RM150 to all pupils this month – regardless of their parents’ income bracket.
The schooling aid is expected to be disbursed by Jan 12.
Also, all civil servants from Grades 11 to 56, will get an additional annual salary increment (KGT) of RM100, which will be reflected in their January salary.
The special additional KGT covers permanent, temporary and contract of service-appointed officers, appointed before Jan 1, 2023, as well as those currently serving.
Some nine million households, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), including those in the agricultural and food production sectors, will continue to enjoy the existing electricity tariff.
There will be no increase in tariff by Tenaga Nasional Bhd under its Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) for these categories.
The lower electricity bills cover a period between January and June this year and comes at a cost of over RM9bil to the government.
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Also lowered are toll charges for motorists using the Sungai Besi Expressway (Besraya) and the Kajang-Seremban Expressway (Lekas), which was made effective yesterday.
Class One vehicles passing through any Besraya Expressway toll plaza will pay RM1.85 (RM2 previously) while motorists using the entire Lekas Expressway will pay RM7.80 (RM8.30 previously) each way.
There is also soothing news on the food supply front, with a more stable supply of eggs following moves to import between two million and 10 million eggs daily from India. The first batch of imported eggs arrived on Dec 19.
A tray of imported eggs is sold at RM14.90 for 30 eggs or 50 sen each, and the price is higher compared to Grade A ones at 45 sen each, Grade B (43 sen) and Grade C (41 sen) in Peninsular Malaysia, but still cheaper than Omega eggs which are priced at 65 sen each.
On Dec 6, Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu said Malaysia would import eggs as a stop-gap measure to address the shortage until a long-term solution was found. The move follows the shortage of chicken eggs in the country lasting over several months.
Malaysians consume an average of 968 million chicken eggs every month.
There is also relief for rubber smallholders, with some 320,000 of them to get RM200 cash aid from this month under the Monsoon Season Aid (BMT).
This is in addition to the RM600 which was disbursed under the BMT for the months of November and December.
Also, Padiberas Nasional Bhd will be channelling RM60mil to farmers – RM10mil for 2022 and RM50mil for 2023.
On the health front, Malaysians can now book appointments for specific services at government health facilities through the MySejahtera app.
The appointment system in MySejahtera covers outpatient treatment, National Health Screening Initiative (NHSI), Peka B40 health screening, pre-employment/pre-education health inspection, pre-marriage screening (KBM), Stop Smoking Service, family planning services and health procedures such as wound treatment and others.
The added feature was launched by Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa on Dec 28 and is already active for appointment bookings for 2023.
More measures to ease the cost of living for the rakyat are expected to be announced by the government later this month.
This comes after a joint effort between the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living and Economy ministries refining several quick-win solutions to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Among them are targeted subsidy for petrol and lowering prices of bottled cooking oil.
