Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat's Phase 1 implementation expedited by three months

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has expedited the implementation of Phase 1 of the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR), bringing it forward from May to end of February, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

He expressed hope that this assistance would benefit more than eight million B40 recipients under Bantuan Prihatin Nasional 2.0 (BPN 2.0) and Bantuan Sara Hidup 2020 (BSH 2020), as well as those whose application were approved later.

The application process for BPR is open until Feb 15 through the link https://bpr.hasil.gov.my.

When presenting the 38th Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (LAKSANA) report on the implementation of the various government initiatives today, the minister also attempted to clear the confusion regarding BPN 2.0 -- the final payment of the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional aid under the Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (KITA PRIHATIN).

He appealed to those eligible for the assistance to be patient given the huge sum involved, which would require at least a week to be fully credited to the recipients.

Tengku Zafrul noted that the distribution of BPN 2.0 Phase 2 with a value of RM2.38 billion had begun on Jan 21.

He said 6.4 million accounts were credited from Jan 21-24 while 3.8 million accounts had been or are being credited during the Jan 25-29 period.

From Jan 25, about 750,000 recipients without bank accounts had begun cash collection in Bank Simpanan Nasional branches in the peninsula for the B40 and M40 recipients, he added.

“The government hopes that the expedited assistance will provide some cash flow relief for 11.06 million single and household recipients during this Movement Control Order period,” he said.

He also expressed hope that the rising trend of daily recoveries from COVID-19 in the country would continue and raised the people's spirit to continue to adhere to the standard operating procedures more strictly to curb the virus.

He noted that on Sunday, 4,427 individuals were declared recovered from COVID-19 -- the highest daily recoveries up to then.

-- BERNAMA