Prihatin payout extended to May 22
KUALA LUMPUR: THE second phase of the National Prihatin Aid (BPN) payout, scheduled to end last week, has been extended to May 22 due to a technicality.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said 7.61 million recipients had received payments worth RM3.41 billion, or 93 per cent of the allocation for the second phase of BPN.
“As for the 2.3 million eligible recipients of new applications and appeals, payments began on May 15. To date, 830,000 people have received BPN payments totalling RM620 million,” he saidwhen presenting Prihatin-Laksana’s sixth accomplishment report yesterday.
Following the extension of the appeal process announced last week, the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) was actively processing the appeals and would give due consideration (to applicants), he said.
“Applicants are reminded to submit their appeals before the closing date on May 31.”
As for the Employees Provident Fund’s i-Lestari programme, he said 4.4 million applications were received with 3.9 million approved up to May 17.
This is an increase of 3.7 million applications compared with last week with a total payment of RM1.83 billion a month.
As for the reduction in EPF contribution to seven per cent from 11 per cent, Tengku Zafrul said the total reduction in contribution estimated to be received by EPF members for this month was RM923.5 million.
He said more workers chose to keep their contribution at 11 per cent, accounting for 1.5 million or 20 per cent of EPF contributors up to May 17, compared with 1.2 million contributors last month.
On wage subsidies, Tengku Zafrul said RM2.24 billion had been approved for 267,752 employers up to May 17, representing two million workers.
On the SME Soft Loans Funds, he said up to May 17, loans approved by local banks for the SMEs were worth RM5.8 billion, benefiting 14,075 SMEs.
The funds managed by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) include the Special Relief Facility (SRF), Agrofund and Takaful Insurance for Covid-19 screening.
“Demand for SRF was encouraging and the initial allocation of RM5 billion was fully used.
“In fact, as announced by BNM last week, more than 20,000 applications, totalling about RM10 billion, had been approved by financial institutions offering SRF.
“Due to the overwhelming response, BNM added another RM5 billion to cater to the number of applications that have been approved.”
Of the approved figures, RM5.75 billion was for 13,908 SMEs while RM4.25 billion was in the post-approval stage.
Meanwhile, Socso Employment Insurance System Office head Datuk Mohd Sahar Darusman said from Jan 1 to May 17, Sosco received 27,800 applications for the EIS benefits.
Workers who have been retrenched and are registered with Socso may submit their applications for EIS financial assistance, training and job placement via www.perkeso.gov.my.
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