Government extends BPN appeal period until May 31 - Muhyiddin

The government has agreed to extend the appeal period for Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) applications until May 31, 2020.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the decision was made after taking into account the people's complaints about the rejection which was considered irrelevant to the current situation.

“Some applications have been rejected because records show income exceeds the eligibility criteria. But they had actually lost their jobs and lost their source of income.

“Some of the applicants are students who have received BPN assistance for category 9 students. So, their application for BPN payments for the singles category was rejected,” he said in a special message here today.

The prime minister said that in addition to sending e-mails, applicants whose applications were not approved could come forward to the IRB counters to appeal from Monday, May 11, 2020.

For states holidaying tomorrow, he added, applicants can go to the IRB counter on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.

"I do not promise that all appeals will be approved. But any appeal that is qualified and reasonable, Insya-Allah can be approved,” he added.

Muhyiddin also said until yesterday (May 10), the government had approved 2.3 million BPN applications, including new applications and appeals, totalling RM1.7 billion.

With the approval, he said, the total number of BPN recipients so far were 10.6 million involving RM11 billion in payments.