1Malaysia Student Discount Card a hit with students

The private college student from Kuala Lumpur is able to cut down on his RM500 monthly expenditure, which also goes for buying books, stationery and tools to support his Internet usage.

His sentiments were shared by Azeqa Ahmad, a student of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM), who was surprised at the range of goods and services and high percentage of discounts made available for users of the card.

"I am able to save RM5 when I buy stationery for RM20," said the third-year humanities student.

KADS1M was introduced on July 2 and was launched by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. The idea of coming up with the card came from undergraduates themselves following a National Student Consultative Council meeting on Nov 21 last year.

The introduction of the card did not cost the government anything. Deputy Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim, in replying to a question in the Dewan Rakyat, said the initiative was made available through Bank Rakyat's corporate social responsibility programme.

She said they were also responsible in distributing the cards. To date a total of 927,397 cards had already been distributed to students.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Syahril Ahmad Halim, a student at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), said there was a lack of promotion of the card in Terengganu and Kelantan.

"I feel there is little promotion and some companies or shops do not offer the discounts. I hope more companies will welcome this good initiative of the government," he said.

The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry introduced KADS1M with the objective of helping almost 1.5 million students of public and private tertiary institutions in the country to reduce the burden of their cost of living.

Students are able to discounts of between five and 60 per cent for goods and services from more than 2,600 outlets of 264 participating companies.

The goods and services include books, stationery, sports attire, transport and accommodation, food and drinks, and health clinic, automotive workshop and recreation services.