KUALA LUMPUR: The Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia (Malaysian Family Assistance or BKM) programme is expected to benefit more than 9.6 million recipients in 2022 with an allocation of RM8.2 billion, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

This represents an increase from 8.6 million recipients with an allocation of RM7 billion under the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) initiative in 2021, he said.

"The government wants to ensure that those who are eligible and still not in the government database can register and apply.

"Applicants for the 2021 COVID-19 Special Assistance (BKC) and BPR who did not qualify because they received the Prihatin Special Grant will be automatically brought into the BKM system for us to check their eligibility and to reduce the exclusion error (based on data from BPR 2021)," Tengku Zafrul said in conjunction with the BKM registration initiative by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) in Jalan Duta here today.

He said that to ensure eligibility, the data will be cross-checked against data from other government agencies, such as those from the eKasih data bank, Social Welfare Department assistance, recipients of the Employment Insurance Scheme under the Social Security Organisation, and zakat or Baitulmal aid recipients in the Klang Valley, among others.

As of Jan 7, 2022, the IRB had received a total of 1,429,262 new BKM applications and updates.

Of this, 355,071 were new applications while 1,124,191 were requests for updates.

The BKM registration is open from Jan 1 to Jan 31, 2022, and nearly 95 per cent of new applications and updates to-date were made online.

-- BERNAMA