Putrajaya, Feb 21 – The Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) 3.0 which will be credited directly into the bank account of the applicants beginning Feb 22 is to facilitate the transfer of funds to the BR1M recipients.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the government had given consideration to all feedback from the BR1M recipients and the experience in managing the payment of BR1M previously.
“In the past, BR1M recipients had to wait a long time and form a long queue to receive the payment to the extent of causing discomfort.
“As such, the Cabinet unanimously approved the payment of BR1M 3.0 this time to be channelled directly to the recipients through their bank account without going through various inconvenient procedures,” he said.
He said this after officially opening the new IBM Global Delivery Centre (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd building, at Cyberjaya near Putrajaya, Thursday.
Also present were the chief executive officer of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) Datuk Badlisham Ghazali and IBM Global Delivery Centre (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd director, Craig Tucker.
Ahmad Shabery disclosed this when asked to comment by several Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters that the payment of BR1M directly into the bank account of recipients would prevent interaction between the leaders and the general public because previously functions to hand out the BR1M payment had been held throughout the country.
When tabling the 2014 Budget in October last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced that households with a monthly earning of RM3,000 and less who were eligible would receive the BR1M assistance of RM650, while individuals who were single and earning less than RM2,000 per month would receive aid of RM300.
A sum of RM4.6 billion was allocated by the government to implement the aid which would benefit almost 7.9 million Malaysians.
He said there were various other ways for community leaders and organisations that supported the government to interact with the public besides organising the BR1M payment programmes.
Besides, the channelling of cash directly to the recipients proved the sincerity of the government in easing the cost of living burden and to build public confidence that the system of government transactions and banking transactions were efficient and trustworthy, Shabery said.
On IBM Global Delivery Centre (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (IBM Global), he said the company had provided job opportunities to Malaysians since making investments by locating its office in Cyberjaya that adopted the concept of the Silicone Valley in the United States (US).
In this context, Shabery said he was made to understand that many highly skilled local people were now working at IBM Global and receiving salaries of at least RM5,000 per month.
Meanwhile, Shabery said Cyberjaya was now growing rapidly when last year (2013), total investments received was RM2.9 billion including from companies with Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status.
-Bernama
