BR1M 3.0 payment in mid-February

The 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) 3.0 will be distributed to 7.9 million eligible Malaysians in the middle of February.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the distribution of BR1M 3.0 would lighten the burden of the people who are facing rising prices of goods at the moment.

"The Umno Supreme Council (MT) was told that BR1M 3.0 payment would be done in two weeks time, that is in mid-February, to relieve the people of the problem of price hikes," he said after chairing the MT meeting here today.

When tabling the 2014 Budget last year, Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said the government had allocated RM4.6 billion for BR1M 3.0.

This year, the aid will be raised from RM500 to RM650 for each household with monthly income of RM3,000 and below, while unmarried individuals aged 21 years and above with monthly income of not more than RM2,000 would have their assistance raised from RM250 to RM300.

For the first time, BR1M 3.0 will be extended to households with monthly income of between RM3,000 to RM4,000 with aid amounting to RM450.

Najib said it could not be denied that the people were hit by the rising prices of goods and that the government was committed to combat the matter through various programmes and measures which were being taken.

He said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin would be chairing a meeting of the Special Committee on Rising Cost of Living which was awaiting the results of a special laboratory study.

"Besides that, we are also seeing problems in the supply chain whereby wholesalers are raising prices to retailers unreasonably.

"We also took note of the monsoon season which caused the prices of goods to go up and we will take measures to contain the matter," he said.

Najib said the Umno Supreme Council also gave its undivided support to all government policies and measures taken to ease the people's burden as the nation's economy was still strong.

"From the aspects of investment, economic growth and inflation, the stock exchange is still in a healthy position and our economic strenght is still recognised both locally and abroad," he said.